The Masterbender
by Turtleduck98
Summary: While being somewhere in the Earth Kingdom, Aang and Katara find a girl named Jaycee battling soldiers. It turns out that she's an airbender, the last survivor of a hidden Air Nomad camp. As they take her to the other members of their team, Jaycee recognizes Zuko as the young prince who once did something cruel to her and her family. Zuko, on the other side, falls in love with her.
1. Chapter 1 - The Masterbender

**author's note: **

**1) Please excuse my bad english. I am german, I live in germany and I'm not related to english or american people. I just like writing in english :)**

**2) This story is about an OC named Jaycee, if you don't understand everything then don't be afraid to ask, some things will also be explained later**

**3) The story takes place after chapter 16: The southern raiders. 'Team Avatar' had to leave the western air temple for some reason I don't know yet ;)**

**4) Mai and Zuko really broke up now. I hate doing this to Mai but it's necessary for the story**

**5) I have an obsession with Avatar: The last airbender, especially Zuko :) Please don't judge me for it.**

**6) If you don't like the story, just stop reading.**

**7) Reviews are welcome, but if you have to write hater comments then please give me a reason why you hate it and tell me what I can do better**

**8) I own nothing ;) Avatar belongs to nickelodeon, Jaycee belongs to my imagination :D**

**Book 3: Fire **

**Chapter 17: The Masterbender**

Sokka was sitting at the edge of a river with a spear in his hand, staring at the water. Suki, Aang and Katara were getting up the tents, Zuko was heating water for tea and Toph was hanging her feet into the cool water. Suddenly, Aang's stomach growled loudly. He turned around into Sokka's direction.

"Hey, Sokka," he yelled. "Have you already caught something? I'm starving!"

Sokka turned to him with an annoyed look on his face.

"How am I supposed to catch something when you guys are yelling around the whole time? Keep quiet, then you won't scare it away!" Sokka responded angrily.

"Scare what away?" Katara asked with an ironic laugh in her voice. "You're sitting there since half an hour and you haven't even seen a fish or anything else to eat."

Sokka turned away glaring into the water. Just as he wanted to say something to Katara, Aang's stomach growled again.

"Come on," Katara told him. "We'll finish the tents now and then we're going to search some food in the forest or something."

Aang nodded and kept building up the half-finished tent in front of him, but Toph wasn't so thrilled about the idea.

"Not nuts again," she whined. Zuko looked over his shoulder.

"Better nuts than nothing," he shrugged before turning back to his steaming bowl. Toph growled.

"I'll take the nothing option, please," she said disgustedly.

A few minutes later, however, Aang and Katara walked around the area, searching for something to eat, because they had decided that it didn't seem like Sokka would catch anything. Suddenly they heard angry shouts and fighting sounds, not far away from where they were.

"What's that?" Katara asked appalled.

"I don't know," Aang answered. "We should better look it up."

They ran over a hill and saw a few soldiers from the Fire Nation attacking a girl which didn't seem to be much older than them having light brown hair. However, she avoided each attack, she moved absolutely fleet-footed, it seemed like she were floating. She pranced around and weren't hit by any attacks.

"We have to help her!" Katara screamed frightened. But just as they wanted to start running towards the girl, she made a move that seemed very familiar to Aang. Before he could realize what he just had seen a stream of air flooded out of the girl's hands towards the firebenders.

Katara and Aang stopped like they were paralyzed and stared at her.

"She's an airbender," Aang whispered.

Then he pulled himself out of his rigor.

"Holy spirits!" He yelled and ran towards the girl. "You're an airbender! You're an airbender!" In full run he threw himself into her arms before she could react somehow. Then he let her go and looked at her exuberantly happy.

"I thought I am the last one!"

"Wait a moment," the girl said and shook her head confusedly. "You're an airbender, too?"

"My name is Aang. And I'm the Avatar," Aang said proudly. "Look."

He created an air scooter, sat on it and earthbended the earth under him to lift him up until he could look into the girl's confused eyes.

After a little break, the girl finally spoke.

"You… are the Avatar."

Aang nodded, still smiling.

"Where were you?" The girl asked confusedly. Aang shrugged.

"I was frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years," he answered. "But now I'm back."

"Ohhh…" the girl said even more confused. The Avatar didn't let her time to think about the situation.

"Where are you from? Are there other airbenders around? How did you survive?" He questioned her. Then, Katara suddenly interrupted him as she walked over to the two airbenders.

"Aang, stop it," she shushed him.

"My name is Katara," she said to the girl, with a friendly smile on her face. "Who are you?"

The girl looked at the persons in front of her confused, excited, and, most of all, frightened. Her body was about to turn around and run away, an old reflex she had.

"I'm Jaycee," she replied nervously. Then she turned back to Aang while taking a small step backwards to bring more distance between herself and the boy who was standing on the earth again now.

"I don't really have a home, just a small hideout in a forest a few daytrips from here. I don't think that there are any others left, at least not in this part of the world. On the other side, until now I thought that I am the last, so I guess it might be possible. But don't set your hopes too high. You should have just come back six years earlier. I lived in a hidden camp then, with about 29 other Air Nomads. The Fire Nation discovered us and killed everyone but me."

Aang looked at her sadly.

"I'm sorry," he said. Jaycee looked into his large, sad eyes.

"It's not your fault," she tried to calm him.

Katara looked thoughtfully, then she glanced at Jaycee.

"Six years ago, you said? How old are you?" she wanted to know.

"I'm about 15, I guess," the girl replied. "I don't know the exact date, but I should've turned 15 last spring if I count rightly."

"So you lost everyone when you were nine?" Katara asked shocked. Jaycee lowered her glance, just deep enough to be still on guard of the two strangers, even though she couldn't really mistrust a young boy and a girl still younger than her, especially when that boy was the Avatar and the only airbender she'd ever met in six years.

"Yeah," she replied simply.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Katara said, her eyes filled with tears. She took a step forward and reached out to hug the light haired girl, but Jaycee immediately reacted and jumped quickly up and backwards with an airbending move, letting the waterbender stumble backwards. Katara looked into the shock filled eyes of the airbender and watched her slowly calm down a bit.

"Sorry," Jaycee apologized. "I've been alone for six years. I'm not used to interact with other people except battling some soldiers, and I don't think that counts as interaction. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," Katara replied.

"Hey, do you want to come with us to meet the rest of our team?" Aang offered, trying to cheer the girls up. Jaycee took another half step backwards.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea…" she tried to refuse, but Aang didn't give up.

"Come on, I'm sure they'll be happy to see another airbender!" he tried to convince her.

"Couldn't you just tell them that you met me?" Jaycee asked.

"Hey, don't be scared of us!" Aang told her. "I'm the Avatar, you can trust me. And my friends, too. They won't hurt you. We two are the last surviving airbenders, we have to stick together! You could help us to defeat the Firelord."

Jaycee thought for a moment. Then she sighed.

"Alright," she agreed. "I'll come with you. But don't expect me to be a totally nice team member. I can help you with food and stuff, but beside that I'm still on my own, okay? As I said, I'm not used to be with other people. I just want to kick the Firelord in his butt."

Aang and Katara smiled slightly.

"Sure, we understand that," Katara accepted. "Don't worry, we're all nice. And besides, we protect each other, so you don't need to be afraid of any attacks or something."

Jaycee didn't seem very convinced, but however, she carefully followed the Avatar and his friend back to their camp.

As they arrived, Sokka had given up fishing and was polishing his boomerang, Suki was watching him, Toph was leaning against a tree picking her nose, and Zuko was still making tea. Toph got up first because she had sensed them coming.

"Hey, guys!" she yelled, making Jaycee flinch. "Who's with you?"

At those words the two boys and Suki looked around to see who she meant. Jaycee, who had been looking around in the small camp stopped staring at Zuko.

Zuko, on the other side, stopped staring at Jaycee. He had never seen such a beautiful girl before. The young firebender immediately liked her hair, her curves, her clothes, her face, her grey eyes. His vision got destroyed when the beautiful girl fell into a fighting stance, her body strained and her grey eyes filled with hatred.

Before she could attack the very confused Zuko, Katara put a hand on Jaycee's shoulder to pull her back, causing her to slightly flinch again, even though she kept her eyes on the boy in front of her.

"Jaycee, wait," Katara tried to calm her new ally. "This is Zuko. He's part of our team. He teaches Aang firebending."

"What do you mean", Jaycee asked her confusedly, still ready to fight. "I know who this is. I thought you said the people here were all nice".

Zuko looked at her very perplexed. "Excuse me, should I know you?" he asked. Jaycee looked at him hate filled.

"So you don't remember me?" she asked him. "You can't remember what you did to me? Well, this doesn't surprise me. I'm probably just one of hundreds. But maybe you do remember that little girl who lost her mother? You know, the girl who blew up her prison cell?" Jaycee glared deadly at Zuko, her body ready to fight, her hands in fists, but still, tears in her eyes because of her memory. All she felt for the boy in front of her was pure hate.

Zuko's eyes widened as he suddenly identified her. "Oh no…" he whispered in shock, his eyes full of disbelief. "I'm so… so sorry…" He bowed his head down; he couldn't stand looking into the girl's eyes anymore. "I never wanted to…" Zuko tried to explain himself, but he didn't know what to say.

"But you did," Jaycee said, her voice filled with hate.

The other members of the team were standing around quietly, listening to the conversation between their newest allies. Then, Aang raised his voice.

"Listen," he spoke to the airbender, trying to calm her down. "I don't know what he's done to you, but Zuko changed. He is helping us to defeat the Fire Nation. He's my firebending teacher! So, whatever it was, you should forgive him. He's good now. None of us could believe it at first, but now Zuko's our best friend!"

Jaycee looked at the Avatar, then shook her head. "No," she replied. "It's unforgivable."

Then she turned around and went away. "I'm going to build up my tent now," she told the others.

"I help you," Katara yelled after her, but Jaycee didn't turn back.

"No, thank you. I can do it alone," she refused. "I… just need some time for myself." As she started to search a good spot for her tent a few steps apart from the other ones, everyone was looking at Zuko. They wanted an explanation for what had just happened.

"What was she talking about?" Suki asked.

"Yeah, you never told us that you know another airbender," Toph added.

"I didn't know she's still alive," Zuko spoke quietly.

"Let's start a campfire, then we can talk about it. Maybe Jaycee can tell us something," Katara tried to save the situation.

But Jaycee didn't come back. Her new friends assumed that it had been a hard day for her and that she had probably fall asleep.

After they all had sat down around the fire, Zuko took a deep breath. He looked at his feet, knowing that he had to recall the most painful memory he had. Then he slowly began to speak.

"When I was, like, ten years old, the armies of my… father discovered a camp with Air Nomad survivors somewhere hidden between mountains and forests. He sent some soldiers there to ambush them. When they came back, they said that they had killed each of them except 5 or 6 people whom were imprisoned in the palace. I was too young, so they didn't tell me most of it, but I've heard that they wanted to know where the Avatar is. So the prisoners got afflicted until they told them."

"But they couldn't know!" Aang interrupted, his eyes widened.

"I know," Zuko continued, still not looking up. "And my father knew, too. But he didn't care. I've never seen the other Air Nomads; I was only allowed to go into a room with a mother and her little girl. Jaycee.

Ozai thought that maybe I and Azula could get informations from her, because she was about our age. Well, of course we couldn't. I… can't remember everything. I've tried to forget.

A week or two after their imprisonment it was finally the woman's – Jaycee's mother's – turn to get afflicted. She got tied to the wall on the opposite of the prison cell her daughter was in, so that the child could watch the cruelty. About three soldiers stood around the woman. They asked her a question, and when she refused to answer, they shot a blast of fire at her. Always only one, and carefully, so that her clothes and her hair wouldn't burn. But painfully. I could hear the screams of her and her daughter all over the corridor when I went there."

"You WENT there?" Katara disrupted shocked. Zuko sighed. He took a small break before continuing, slightly shivering at the horrible memory.

"Yeah… I did. My… the Firelord forced me to. He said that I had to… he made me… I had to blast one shot at her." Zuko's voice cracked as he ended, shuddering.

"You HURT her?" Katara screamed again in disbelief.

"No wonder she hates you," Toph said sarcastically. Aang and Sokka just stared at their friend. Zuko bit his lip, then he kept talking.

"It wasn't just… one blast. It was… the last."

The other members of the group just stared at him. Then, Sokka started talking.

"You didn't…"

"I did," Zuko said, then he kept talking, the painful memories all back. "I'll never forget her scream. The last thing I remember is that something hit my head. Then I lost consciousness. When I woke up again, the girl was gone and the iron bars of her cell were all broken and laid around, just like the door of the room. Other people who didn't got hit like me later told that she had blown up everything with a very powerful airbending move they had never seen before. No one ever saw the girl again, we assumed her to be dead, considering her age. Seems like we were wrong."

"Only the Avatar in the Avatar State or a Masterbender is powerful enough to do something like that. I'm pretty sure she's not the Avatar. So she must be a Masterbender," Aang thought loudly.

"What's that?" Toph asked him.

"Have you never heard of them before?" Aang wondered. The others shook their heads, so he started telling.

"When I was young, Monk Gyatso told me stories about them. They are very rare, like, one in every hundred years or so, mostly even less. They are the strongest benders on the world; they can bend anything that has only few parts of their element inside. Gyatso told me that fully developed Masterbenders are the only ones able to take down a fully developed Avatar in the Avatar State."

"But if she's so strong, then why didn't she just escape earlier?" Katara questioned.

"Because I can't always use them," a voice came from behind them. They all turned around. Jaycee was there, sitting on the branch of a tree, hidden between leaves. No one, not even Toph, had sensed her coming, which made the blind girl wonder the most.

"How did you get there?" she asked confusedly. Jaycee shrugged.

"I've been here the whole time. Guess that explains why no one found me the last years. I just wanted to hear his version of what happened."

She looked at Zuko who lowered his glance. Jaycee ignored it and continued.

"The day I lost my mother was the only time I was able to use my true powers. I could and can always feel them inside me, but they never come out. I don't know exactly what happened with me back there, and I don't really like thinking about it, so I just leave it as it is. My mother taught me things like edible and healing plants and such stuff, so I survived in the forest for six years."

"Oh…" Suki said. "We thought you were sleeping."

"I can't sleep when there's sound. Especially not talking. Guess I've been alone for too long," Jaycee explained. "Besides, his presence doesn't really make it better."

She looked at Zuko again, the only one who hadn't said anything yet.

"I know it doesn't help, but I'm really sorry…" he spoke silently, still not managing it to look into the girl's eyes.

"You're right," she replied coldly. "'Sorry' won't bring her back."

Zuko sighed.

"I know," he repeated sadly. "I wish I could do something to help you."

"You should've thought about that earlier. I'll try to sleep now."

With those words she jumped down the tree using her airbending and walked away, leaving Zuko and the others by the campfire.

Katara, who sat beside Zuko, put her hand over his shoulders and pulled him into a hug to comfort him.

"We all know that you would never do something like that," she told her friend.

"But I did," Zuko replied despondently. "You can't deny it. I know I did. And she knows, too."

Katara patted his shoulder slightly. "Give her time," she said. "Jaycee is new around other people. She was scared of me and Aang, too. And you've heard what she said, that she can't sleep with noise. She got paranoid being alone all those years. She'll get used to live with us. She'll get used to you, too."

Zuko sighed, then he got up.

"No," he refused to Katara's calming words. "Like she said. It's unforgivable."

Then he started walking towards his own tent, the tea and the dinner forgotten, to just lie down and escape to sleep.

**Thx for reading :D** **Please review!**

**(I don't know when I will be able to update again, it depends on my father; the laptop belongs to him -.-)**


	2. Chapter 2 - Friend or Foe

**A/N**

**I live! I live! Oh my, it's been ages since I updated last! I'm so sorry, I… well, I don't really have an excuse for it taking so long… But now it's finally break in my part of Germany too and I'm visiting my grandma in Hungary, this means I'll finally have time to write 3 But there are some thing I need to say first.**

**1) I noticed that they actually DID have a reason to leave the Western Air Temple. Azula. Whoops… I must've somehow missed that xD**

**2) I also noticed that Aang waited for Sokka to catch a fish, but he doesn't even eat fish. Let's just say he didn't want to start eating without his friends ;)**

**3) Also, I had (and probably will have) some grammar and spelling mistakes. Please excuse me :3 For example, at one part I wrote something like "didn't have been" or so. No, I'm not that stupid; I have no idea how that could happen**

**4) Rewatching the Southern Raiders I noticed some similarities between Katara and Jaycee. I swear it was only accidental! I didn't even notice! But it's actually pretty iroh-nic that Katara will be the one talking with Zuko and Jaycee (oooh spoiler O.O)**

**5) By the way I somehow accidentally commented my own story. Again, whoops :P I'm new on and actually wanted to thank the commenting people for honoring me 3 Why is it even possible to subscribe my own story? (I didn't do that I'm just wondering)**

**6) Chapter 3 and 4 are pretty much done, expect them in the near future J As for chapter 5, I'm not sure yet because I don't know what will happen there; the only thing I got is too cheesy and boring to be a chapter of its own. Please comment if you want me to rewrite the Ember Island Players! I will rewrite Sozin's Comet (at least partly) and**

**7) I'm thinking about rewriting this whole story in Jaycee's POV when it's finished because her paranoid side doesn't show as much as I expected it to and I don't want her to seem like a Mary-Sue.**

**8) This chapter is more like a filler; the next one will contain some action. I'm talking too much again, so… Have fun :D**

**Book 3 – Fire**

**Chapter 18 – Friend or Foe**

The next morning, Aang woke up first as the sun was rising. Or, at least he thought he was first. But when he stepped out of his tent and took a deep breath, stretching his arms, he spotted Jaycee sitting on the same branch of the tree she had sat the night before, looking at him.

"Good morning," he waved to her and she nodded back to him, puncturing him with her still mistrusting look. "How long are you up?"

"I felt insecure in the tent because of all the noises around me," she replied. "It felt a bit like I was caged. And it's also pretty narrow in there, so I decided to come here. I'm used to sleep on trees; I actually just woke up when I heard you move.

The Masterbender jumped down the tree and landed in front of Aang.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't want to wake you," he apologized. She shrugged.

"Never mind," she told him. "I woke up every few minutes anyway. One of your friends snores very loudly in his sleep. In fact, you all sleep pretty noisy. I'm not used to it."

Just as Jaycee wanted to add something a loud roar from behind shocked her and made her turn around to face the unknown source of the sound with a defensive stance in less than a second. Aang, who saw it, quickly ran in front of her, raising his arms.

"Wait, it's just Appa!" he exclaimed. "Hey, right, you haven't met him yet. Come on, I'll introduce you two."

With that the Avatar started walking towards his animal companion, but Jaycee resisted.

"Are you sure it's save? That was one loud roar," she worried.

"Of course it is," Aang laughed. "Appa is my best friend."

"Well, if you say so…" the Masterbender agreed, still not convinced but curious. As soon as she saw the giant bison she became excited.

"Is that a sky bison?" she wanted to know.

"Yup," her new friend agreed. Jaycee was astonished.

"I've seen drawings of them! An old man in my village told me and the other kids stories about how they – wait, can he actually fly?"

The Avatar nodded.

"Yes, we flew all over the world with him. He was frozen in the ice berg with me."

"I'm not even going to ask how you got there," Jaycee told him sarcastically, then she walked over to the bison to pet his forehead.

"Hey, my friend," she said to him, "It's a great honor to meet a direct descendant of the first airbenders."

Appa groaned and gave Jaycee a lick which left her dripping all wet. She quickly dried herself with airbending and chuckled, her first laugh in which felt like ages.

Suddenly the rest of the team appeared from behind and the Masterbender quickly jumped on Appa's head.

"Good morning, my airbending allies," Sokka exclaimed as they arrived.

"Hey guys," Aang replied while Jaycee looked at the arriving people suspiciously.

"Good morning," she finally said too.

"Hey, we didn't even introduce ourselves yet," Suki noticed, then she started pointing at herself and her friends. "Okay, you already know Aang and Katara, and Zuko… kind of… and my name's Suki, that's Sokka, and Toph."

"Nice to meet you," the Earthbender greeted smiling.

"Alright," Katara took word. "Let's have breakfast and then we can move on, okay?"

"But what should we eat?" Aang asked. "We didn't find anything yesterday."

"Neither did we eat," Sokka cried. "We will STARVE!"

"Well, if you guys are out of food we could share my supplies. I don't know if it's enough for all of us, but if not I could search more. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to eat out here," Jaycee suggested.

"You know about edible plants?" Suki wanted to know curiously. The Masterbender nodded.

"I grew up in a forest, she explained. "My mother taught me everything I know."

She went to get her bag, never fully turning her back at her new allies to have them in sight in case they attacked her or something.

The bag revealed a large collection of mushrooms, nuts and various plants.

"We're safe!" Sokka yelled, grabbing the bag out of the girl's hands who immediately jumped backwards.

His friends looked each other shaking their heads, but then they took the bag from Sokka before he ate all of it and started to eat.

"I think I'll survive another day," Sokka announced a bit later, rubbing his filled stomach. His girlfriend rolled her eyes at him.

"Jaycee," she asked, "could you show us some plants in the forest we can collect? We'll need more later, I'm afraid Sokka ate all of your supplies."

"I was hungry, okay?" Sokka exclaimed angrily. Jaycee ignored him.

"I think I could give you a little lesson in edible…" she begun, then she suddenly stopped when she heard something flying towards her. She quickly turned around to face the incoming object, and in that moment Momo, who had planned to land on her shoulder, smacked into her face.

The girl shrieked and jumped up, trying to get the lemur off of her face. Momo let her go and flew over to Aang's shoulder, who started to pet him.

"Calm down," he laughed. "That's just Momo. He's my lemur. Did you have any lemurs in your camp?"

Jaycee slowly sat back onto the ground and examined the Avatar's pet.

"No, I was told they were extinct, just like bison, „she replied. "You really scared me, you know that?" The lemur chirped, then flew back to the girl's shoulder.

"Do you have any other pets I should know about?" she wanted to know, petting the animal.

"Nope," Aang replied. "Just Appa and Momo."

"I used to have a messenger hawk named Hawky but he disappeared," Sokka injected. Their newest ally stood up.

"Well then, come on, I'll show you what you can eat out here," she offered. "How did you survive until now?"

"We brought some money form the Water Tribe," Katara told her.

"And we were pulling some scams," Toph added.

"But we can't go to the villages anymore, so we have to trust in Sokka's fishing skills," Suki explained, nodding at her boyfriend.

"Which don't exist," the Earthbender stated.

"Hey!" said boy complained, but Jaycee interrupted him before he could continue.

"What's the point in money anyway?" she asked. "We always shared everything back home. Why doesn't that work for you? No one ever complained when I took their stuff from the market."

"Wait, you were stealing food?" Katara jumped unbelievingly, giving the Airbender a judging glance.

"They never noticed?" Toph wondered. "You've got to be good!"

"Not food," Jaycee rejected. "I can survive on plants and fish. But I need clothes – at least stuff to sow them; no one's selling Air Nomad outfits…"

"Annoying, isn't it?" Aang interfered.

"Yeah," the girl agreed before finishing her sentence. "And blankets for the winters. And I'm glad I took a tent this time. It really came in handy. But I don't think 'stealing' is the right word. It sounds so harsh. I really only took what I needed. Well, except the tent, but I do need it now, so it doesn't really count."

"Stealing is never right," Katara informed her.

"Hey, but when you took that waterbending scroll from the pirates you said…" Sokka began, but his sister interrupted him.

"That's something completely different!" she claimed.

"Well, what should I have done in your opinion?" Jaycee wanted to know. "Freeze to death in winter?"

"You could have, I don't know, _bought _the things?" Katara suggested.

"With what?" the Airbender asked, starting to lose her natural, careful calm. I'd have to steal money first! I don't even know how to use it!"

"How about working?" the Waterbender proposed.

"No way! I only went there once or twice a year anyway! I was glad when I was back in my forest! No one ever saw me outside." Jaycee almost shouted, getting angry at her new friend.

"I think she does have a point in that," Aang injected.

"Yeah, I wouldn't work either if I lived in a forest," Sokka agreed with him.

"You work?" Toph asked her friend with a faked surprise.

"Thanks," Jaycee thanked her allies for their understanding. Suddenly Aang noticed that Zuko had been just watching and listening the whole time.

"What's with you?" he asked him. "Did you lose your tongue?"

"No," the Firebender stated, a slight flush on his cheeks as he jumped back to present.

"Let's just go," the Masterbender changed the subject with a cold voice. Zuko sighed and followed his friends into the forest.

After she had explained and showed some plants to her allies, Jaycee suggested that they'd split up.

"Aang and I will climb up the trees to search some plants up there, the rest of you can collect fireweed here," she said. "Meet you in an hour at the camp."

"Come on, Momo," Aang called his pet as he jumped up the trees following the Masterbender. "See you guys."

"Bye," Katara yelled, watching the two Airbenders.

After they had left, Toph suddenly turned to Suki, Katara and her brother.

"Sparky's in looove," she whispered, restraining her laughter.

"WHAT?" Zuko shouted. "No, I'm not! Why would you say that?"

"Don't even _try_," Toph smirked. "You know that I can feel your heartbeat." The Firebender's face flushed into a deeper red as he struggled for an answer.

"No, that's because… Look, I hurt Jaycee very much and I'm feeling really sorry. And every time I see her I feel the guilt rising up, and that's probably what you feel," the Firebender struggled for an alibi.

"That would be an explanation," Katara interjected. The blind girl nodded slowly.

"Well, technically it would…" she began thoughtfully. Zuko mutedly breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to the plants on the ground as Toph smirked again.

"Just one thing still wonders me," she said innocently. Her allies – except Zuko - looked at her questioningly, the Prince kept on collecting fireweed to hide his expressions.

"I never mentioned Jaycee. I was just talking about Zuko being in love, I didn't say any names," Toph finished.

Sokka bursted out laughing.

"Dude, you just revealed yourself," he chuckled, wiping a tear out of his eye. Then he laid an arm over his friend's shoulder and whispered into his ear: "She does look good, eh?"

"Hey, I've heard that," Suki announced, glaring at her boyfriend who immediately let go of Zuko to kiss her on the cheek.

"No!" the Firebender exclaimed angrily, still a blush on his cheeks.

"What no?" Katara wanted to know.

"No she doesn't look good?" Suki guessed.

"No! I mean, yes, she does, but…" he stuttered.

"Uh-huh?" the Kyoshi Warrior giggled.

"Duh, this is ridiculous!" Zuko yelled, then he continued to collect his fireweed, not willing to add anything to the conversation.

Sokka laughed even harder.

"Zuko and Jaycee," he began to sing, then Toph stepped beside him and they continued in unison, "sitting on a tree…"

"STOP IT!" the Prince suddenly yelled causing them to stop, even though they all still kept laughing. His face showed mostly rage, embarrassment, and, behind all, desperation. "And what if I do, what does it matter? She hates me anyways! I'm going back to prepare a bowl of water for the plants." Zuko turned around and headed back to their current camping place, leaving his friends watching him leave, only Sokka and Toph still laughing.

"I'll talk to him," Katara declared, then she followed her friend. Suki glared at her boyfriend and the Earthbender.

"That's not funny!" she proclaimed. Sokka looked at her confusedly.

"But you just laughed, too," he reminded her. His girlfriend shook her head and sighed annoyed.

Meanwhile, Katara had caught up with her ally at the camp place. He was searching a bowl in Appa's saddle, his back turned to the Waterbender.

"Zuko?" she asked, revealing she was behind him. Zuko, however, didn't turn around.

"What do you want?" he wanted to know, his voice still slightly angry.

"I just want to talk," Katara told him calmly.

"Just leave me alone, okay?" he yelled

"Come on, you don't need to be ashamed of…" the Waterbender began, taking a few steps to cover the distance between her_s_elf and her friend.

"I said GO!" he shouted, blasting fire into her direction, not meaning to actually hit her. Katara stopped walking but didn't give up yet.

"Listen, she'll get around," she assured him. "Just give her time."

"She'll get around with _you_," Zuko corrected her, starting to fill water from a nearby stream of water into the large bowl.

"With you too," Katara said, helping him with the water. "She's just afraid of us because she never met any people except the ones she grew up with."

"And me," he added, a slightly sarcastic and desperate tone clinging in his voice.

"She'll be fine, Zuko."

"Maybe. But I still took her mother."

"It'll be ok. Do you want me to talk to her?" she suggested.

"You said yourself that it's impossible to forgive," Zuko reminded her.

"That wasn't the same." Katara disagreed, slightly angry at him for bringing it up and herself for acting that way.

"Yes it was."

"Maybe I can talk to her," she repeated her proposal.

"No," "It's better if you let her decide by herself."

"Well, then perhaps you should talk to her."

"Why would she talk to me?" he wanted to know. "She acts like I don't even exist."

"I think that's her way of dealing with the situation. At least she's not attacking you."

"I don't know what's worse," the Firebender admitted. Just as Katara wanted to say something to comfort him, Jaycee and Aang arrived at the campsite, the girl carrying two large branches full of red berries.

As the others had come too and sat down, the Masterbender joyfully ate the berries.

"Where do you know these berries from?" Suki wanted to know. "You seem so excited about them, it doesn't seem like you had any of them lately. What's so great about them anyway?"

"Well, I didn't have had any of them in 'my' forest, but I used eating them with my mother when I was younger," Jaycee explained. Then she smiled and continued. "Once we were sitting on a meadow near our camp at a warm, sunny day. The sky clear and blue, the birds tweeting and everything was full of flowers. We had already picked some and made necklaces for each other. My sister Mune laid a few steps apart from me and mommy; completely lost in her dream world. I've always tried to guess what she was thinking of, but she never told me. My mother was telling us stories about her childhood. She said that once she and her friends had run away from the hidden village to see the world and had almost gotten caught by Fire Nation soldiers. When she referenced a bold little kid to me I got angry and threw a berry on her. Then she started tickling me until I couldn't breathe anymore because I was laughing so hard. Mune had to save me from her." The girl smiled at the memory, her eyes half-shut.

"Who's Mune?" Aang asked.

"My sister," Jaycee explained. "She would laugh at me now if she saw me so scared and all. She always did. But she never wanted to hurt me or anything. We loved each other, and I always looked up to her. She seemed so old and wise to me, even though she was only five years older. One day she ran away from our camp and never came back. I woke up and she was gone. Everyone thought that she had got caught while searching food, that's the main reason why it was forbidden to go away alone, but I found a letter from her which said that she went away to see an Earth Kingdom boy she loved. She wrote that she met him once when she was younger and ran away, what she actually did very often. In her letter, she also told me that I shouldn't worry about her and that she'd come back. She never did. I was eight then, one year before the Fire Nation ambushed us. I hope that she stayed with him; considering she was a Non-bender probably no one noticed that she's got Air Nomad origins. But most likely she got killed on the way. I wish for her that it was on the way back, so at least she could meet her boyfriend one last time. I guess she always dreamed about him. When I got her letter I felt very angry at her for leaving me and the others behind, but lately, I kind of understand it. It's hard to miss someone you love."

A few hours later in the evening as they had finished eating dinner, one after another got up to go to bed. The first one was Aang, unsurprisingly, because he had had a hard day of training. Then Katara, trying to give Jaycee a hug first which she refused again, still not ready to make any closer contact to her friends than necessary. Toph just walked a few steps then plumped to the ground bending an earth tent. Next was Sokka, letting out a yawn while saying goodnight to his friends and petting Appa's leg while he passed him, soon followed by Suki, leaving Zuko and Jaycee alone by the campfire.

"Well… goodnight then," Zuko said as they were both getting up. The Airbender ignored him and started walking towards her own tent.

"Hey!" her ally suddenly yelled after her. Jaycee stopped but didn't look back, seemingly not expecting him to attack her from behind, no expression showing on her face.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Zuko continued, still shouting. "I'm really sorry and I wish I could somehow chance it, but I can't."

The girl in front of him still didn't show any reaction which made the Prince fill with anger and desperation even more.

"Look, I completely understand that you hate me," he explained. "I hate myself too, and I hate my father even more for forcing me. I know that I should have refused, but I was afraid what he might do to me. I mean, look at my _face_!"

Jaycee subtly raised an eyebrow but except that she stayed emotionless, her back still turned to Zuko so he had no chance to see her face anyway.

"I'm not even asking you to forgive me, especially not to like me. It's okay if you hate me, just _please don't ignore me_!" The Firebender's yelling had gotten a begging tone as he looked at Jaycee's back, waiting for her to answer him. For a few seconds she stayed silent, then she closed her eyes and slowly took a breath, still on guard to every sudden noises around her.

"I don't _hate _you," was all she finally replied, her voice calm and silent. Now it was Zuko who just looked at her not saying a word.

"This whole situation is just confusing," the girl added, shaking her head to clear her mind. "I mean, try to see this from my view, I live alone for six years after losing my mother and everyone else I know, telling myself that the Fire Nation is pure evil and ruthless, and then you guys show up, I recognize you and I get told that you were good and all. And actually, I can see that you're trying. You didn't attack me yet, and you had many chances to. I don't think you'll do that, I really don't, but that's just how I am, I can never be careful enough. You know, it was easier when I was on my own. It's hard to simply forget something you've been telling yourself for years, especially not with these circumstances. I just… I don't know what's right or wrong, or what I should do."

The Firebender looked at her, her back still turned to him. He got up and walked beside her, then he just stood there for a few moments. Jaycee didn't react to it or anything, and Zuko took it as a silent agreement. He raised one hand slightly upwards, then he stopped for a second looking at the girl again, his hand resting in the air. Slowly, he put it down on her shoulder.

Jaycee had seen it coming; still the sudden touch took her by surprise. Her eyes widened slightly in shock and her body strutted. However, she still didn't move or raise her glance. Zuko opened his mouth to say something to comfort the Airbender, but he couldn't find the right words.

"Goodnight, Zuko," she finally replied him after a long break before continuing to walk to her tent leaving her ally alone. He looked after her until she had climbed into her tent and shut the entrance, then the Firebender lowered his glance himself.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again, even though no one but him could hear it. Then he turned around and went to get some sleep.

The next day after breakfast the team had to move on.

"We had enough rest," Aang announced. "Everybody pack up and sit on Appa."

Jaycee, who sat at a tree again, suddenly looked scared.

"You mean we're going to be… flying?" she asked to assure herself, fear clinging in her voice.

"Don't worry," the Avatar told her. "Appa's a good flyer."

"Are you sure it's safe?" the girl wanted to know, still a bit dubious.

"Yeah," the Avatar nodded. "We've been all over the world with him."

"Once he was so exhausted that he…" Sokka begun, but Suki shushed him quickly.

"He's the safest flyer in the world. I give you my word for it." Aang tried to convince his friend.

"Well… in case something happens I still have my bending to save myself, right?" Jaycee told herself.

"Okay, that's it, stop doubting Appa!" Aang shouted, becoming angry.

"Aang, I don't think she…" Katara tried to stop him, but he ignored her.

"He's always been with me since I was little and we never had any trouble," the boy continued, still mad.

"I'm sorry," the Masterbender apologized, taking a few steps backwards and holding up her hands in front of her in defense. "I didn't mean to insult him, or you."

As the bison rose up in the sky, Jaycee grabbed hold of his saddle and kept her eyes wide open as always, even though she would have loved to close them. A few minutes later, though, she got used to it and started to almost enjoy the ride. Aang stood up and grabbed his glider, then he jumped down the saddle and did some loopings in the air. The other Airbender just watched him, cold shivers running down her neck. As always she still kept paying attention to her other surroundings as well. When the Avatar came back and noticed the girl's stare he mistook it and offered her the glider.

"Do you want to try?" he proposed with a smile. Jaycee shook her head quickly.

"I don't fly," she stated, rejecting the staff.

"Why not?" Suki wanted to know. The Airbender sighed.

"When I was five my uncle Shiru had a heart attack while flying. I watched him fall. He didn't come back," she told the others. They looked at her sympathetically.

"That's horrible," Katara said. "So that's why you didn't want to fly on Appa."

"Yes," Jaycee agreed. "I might fall if he loses consciousness. I'm not saying that I believe that that will happen, but it's technically not impossible."

"I'm sorry for yelling at you before," Aang apologized.

"It's fine," the girl replied. "You couldn't know."

After they had flown a few minutes, Jaycee turned to Zuko.

"So how'd you get your scar?" she asked. The Firebender looked at her confused.

"Well, you mentioned something with your father yesterday, and that got me curious," the girl explained. Zuko thought for a moment. At first, he wanted to refuse, because he didn't like to talk about it, but then he noticed that it was the first time Jaycee talked to him without any violence or serious need to do so, so he decided to tell her. Besides, the other team members hadn't heard the whole story yet either.

"It was about three years ago," he began. "My father had an important war meeting. The guards wouldn't let me in at first, but then I could convince my uncle that I had to know how such meetings were, considering I was the Crown Prince. Uncle finally agreed to let me in, but he warned me not to talk to anyone, no matter what happens."

The Prince took a deep breath. Everyone was looking at him, even Jaycee, who only took a look around every few seconds, so he continued.

"But then one of the generals proposed a plan of an attack which would've led to the death of many innocent people. I _had _to speak out against it! But for that I was threatened to an agni-kai with the old man. I was young and stubborn…"

"Was," Sokka whispered, but Zuko ignored him.

"and I didn't think of the old man as very powerful, so I agreed. But when the time came to face my opponent, it was not the general I had to duel but my own father."

"Why would he do that?" Jaycee asked her ally. The Firebender shrugged.

"By speaking out in the Firelord's war room I had automatically spoke out against the Firelord himself. I fell on my knees and begged for forgiveness, but all he said was something like 'You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher'. Then he burnt me. Later he declared that my refusal to fight him was a lack of strength and so he banished me. He said that I could only return if I captured the Avatar. I've been searching him for three years, and now I ended up here. Long story. I'll tell you the details later," he ended, looking in his friends' faces. To his surprise, Jaycee had tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she told him. "That must've been hard."

The Prince shrugged again.

"It's nothing compared to what you've been through," he said. The girl shook her head.

"That's not true," she told him. "Only because it may be a bit less bad it doesn't mean it isn't worse at all."

Then she turned back to enjoy the view, still careful of course, not knowing what else to say.

**A/N**

**Awww, poor Zuko :'( and Jay-Jay (I always call her that :P )**

**Please forgive me if the last part isn't 100% true, I wrote it from memory and didn't look it up or so. I had so much fun writing the "Sparky's in looove" part xD Who doesn't love mocking Zuzu ^-^ Oh well… It's 4 in the morning and I should probably go to bed… (Nah ;) )**

**Don't forget to comment whether you like it or not (and if not, tell me what I could do better) and also if I should rewrite Ember Island Players. Also, if you know any page where I could find the script for the episodes so I won't have to rewrite the whole thing AND Sozin's Comet 1-4 it would be really helpful J**

**Thanks! :D**


	3. Chapter 3 - Flying Trouble

**A/N**

**Aaaand Chapter 3 :D. Sorry, my internet here keeps cracking up so I couldn't update earlier -.- By the way, the A/N for the previous chapter is quite a failure… After almost 8 hours non-stop driving and with a lack of sleep at 5 in the morning; don't try to make logical sentences, so please have mercy :D**

**The pretty much first scene in this chapter is a flashback, just so you won't get confused. It took me ages to make up all the camp people; maybe I'll even write short stories about them in the future just because I can xD. I just wanted to give Jaycee a somewhat realistic background and not just make her lose random persons who don't have feels.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: TLA. Jaycee belongs to me, but Zuko unfortunately doesn't.**

**Book 3: Fire**

**Chapter 19: Flying Trouble**

Jaycee watched the others prepare dinner, helping each other with everything. Appa and Momo flew away for a trip, and the Airbender got up and left her friends as well. After walking a few minutes she arrived at a high cliff at the edge of the forest. The girl looked in the distance, lost in memories, and watched the sun set.

_"Oh no," the man yelled. "Release me, please! I'll do whatever you want, just stop! Please, I beg you! You are too strong for me…" He fell to the ground, three little children on top of him, a fourth one; a girl who was a few years older; pinned is arms to the ground. _

_"Attack!" Mune yelled, holding her uncle Shiru down while her little sister Jaycee and her friends Blossom and Symo started tickling him. The man laughed, trying to get the children off him. Suddenly he winced at a pain in his chest, but it was gone as fast as it came, so his attackers didn't even notice. He was 33 years old, but apparently he was getting old._

_Shiru picked up his five year old niece and put her to the ground beside him, then he did the same with her friends. Mune, who was ten, fortunately got the message that the game was over and released her uncle before her sister could start tickling him again. The man got up and started to run away, the children right beside him, laughing._

_"Get him," Mune yelled. "I'll go left and you right."_

_They split up, the older girl in one direction, almost crashing into a highly pregnant woman named Amita, and the younger ones in the other. Symo tried to follow the girls as fast as he could, but his four year old legs just weren't long enough to keep up with a five and a six year old, especially if Jaycee used her newly discovered airbending. Just before they caught him, Shiru picked up a glider from beside a tent and flew off into the sky._

_"Hey, no fair airbending," Symo cried after him angrily as the man almost touched the boy's hair by passing him._

_"Didn't add that rule," the man replied, still laughing. "I think I know two girls who have to help their mommy make dinner. I'm hungry."_

_And with that he disappeared between the clouds, only to come back into view and do some loops to annoy his nieces._

_"Aww, but we were just playing," Jaycee complained, stomping back to her home tent, pouting._

_"Yeah, come down and make your food yourself," her sister shouted in agreement. As a response, she got another looping from her uncle._

_"Do you wanna play chase with me?" Blossom asked Symo as the girls left. As they started to run away, Symo crashed into Amita and almost made her fall to the ground._

_"Can't you kids play somewhere else? I'm innocent!" she exclaimed._

_"Sorry," the little boy yelled back, already chasing after his friend again. The young woman sighed._

_"You won't become like this, will you?" she asked the little baby inside her stomach, shaking her head._

_Meanwhile, Jaycee and Mune had arrived at their tent and sat on a blanket in front of it, helping their mother prepare their dinner and watching their uncle, still flying around in the sky._

_"Sometimes I wonder who of us is really a child," Moyina smiled._

_Suddenly Shiru let go of his glider and fell, right in the middle of a loop._

_"What kind of trick is that?" Jaycee wanted to know as her uncle continued to fall._

_"I don't think that's a trick…" her sister announced, her eyes widening as she realized what was happening. Moyina took her daughters into her arms and held them so they would cover their faces and not look._

_Uncle Shiru did not come back to finish the game._

Sometime later Katara approached to Jaycee from behind. When she arrived, the girl was already looking at her. When she noticed it was her friend she turned back, still watching the Waterbender from the corners of her eyes.

"There you are," Katara said as she stood beside her friend. "We were searching you. Dinner's ready." She followed the Airbenders glance in the distance.

"Aren't you afraid standing up here?" she wanted to know. Jaycee turned her head a bit to look at her before she answered.

"I'm not scared of heights. I'm afraid of flying," she explained. "You know, in my forest is a large lake, and after making sure that no one's around I sometimes climb at the top of the highest tree and then jump into it. But not often. It's too distracting."

"It must've been horrible, living alone all those years," Katara stated sympathetically.

"I'm rather alone than with people I can't trust," Jaycee told her. "Living in the forest, I've learned how to be careful and to keep my eyes open, no matter what."

"But did you never miss it to have company?" the young healer wondered.

"Of course I did," the Masterbender replied. "I was nine when I moved there. But my family is dead and missing them won't bring them back. See, I never really had a choice if I wanted to be alone. But I got used to it."

"I'm still really sorry for what happened to you. What were you thinking of?" Katara asked.

"This whole situation," Jaycee admitted. It's so complicated. I mean, I want to believe you guys, but it's just very hard."

The Waterbender put a hand at the light haired girl's shoulder, which she didn't refuse, and looked into her eyes.

"You know, when Zuko joined our group, I didn't trust him at first either," she told her. "But then he helped me find the man who killed _my_ mother so I could take revenge. When I met the guy, though, I let him go. He wasn't worth it. But Zuko accepted my opinion and understood me. Then I started to believe him and forgave him."

Jaycee stayed silent for a moment, thinking about her ally's words.

"That's something different," she finally announced.

"Why does everybody say that?" Katara wondered.

"When you were angry at Zuko, you were misdirecting your anger," the Airbender explained, ignoring the last part of her friend's sentence. "When you met the man who did it – did you forgive him?"

"No. I'll never forgive _him_," the other girl admitted, finally starting to understand.

"Then you see my problem?" Jaycee asked.

"Yeah, I guess I do," Katara nodded. "But the man didn't regret it. Zuko does."

The Masterbender let out a sigh.

"But that doesn't change what he did," she declared, looking a little bit sad.

"I know," her ally agreed. "But he didn't want to do it. Listen, I completely understand why you won't trust him; or us; but friendship _means_ trust. We all trust you, even though we barely know you. You're part of our group."

Jaycee thought about the words for a moment.

"It's just very hard for me to trust people," she admitted then. "Especially if they're from the Fire Nation. I've never had anyone but my family."

"You should at least try," the Waterbender suggested. "Everything is easier when you have someone to help you."

"I'll keep that in mind," Jaycee told her, then they went back to where the others had set camp. After eating dinner they laid down to sleep.

0o0o0

Somewhere nearby some dry leaves cracked. Jaycee awoke from the noise and sat up straight. Holding her breath, she listened for more. Just as she was about to lie back, she heard a twig break in the same direction. Alarmed, she jumped down her tree and tried to wake her friends.

"Wake up," she whispered. "I think someone's coming." But instead of waking up they either kept sleeping or turned around annoyed.

"No one's coming, let me sleep," Sokka murmured before turning around in his sleeping bag.

"But…" the girl tried again, only to be interrupted by an angry Toph.

"Stop being paranoid and go back to your tree," she ordered, building a tent of earth around herself to keep the noise out. Jaycee sighed.

"Fine, then don't believe me," she exclaimed, still with a low voice. "If you need me, I'll be hiding a safe distance away. Have fun being ambushed."

With that she turned around and disappeared between the trees.

"Thanks," Sokka yawned. He and his allies fell back asleep; in case they had even woken up. A few seconds later, however, Toph suddenly removed her tent.

"She was right," she yelled, waking everyone.

"Not you too," the young warrior growled, but everyone else jumped awake.

"Who was right?" Aang wanted to know.

"What happened?" Suki added.

"Jaycee said we were being ambushed," the blind girl explained.

"And you didn't believe her?" Zuko yelled, angry at his friends' ignorance.

"Not all of us will do everything tree-girl says," the Earthbender smirked. "Anyways, we better get moving.

"Good idea," Sokka agreed. "How far are they?"

"They're gone," Toph declared surprised. "We weren't ambushed, they just… passed by!"

"Who was it?" Katara questioned.

"How am I supposed to know?" the blind girl wanted to know. "But they disappeared into nowhere."

Aang took his staff.

"We should take a look if we can find them," he suggested. "Appa!"

Nothing happened.

"Where's Appa?" Sokka wondered, looking around.

"Didn't he fly away for a trip yesterday?" Zuko remembered.

"I'll go and search him," the Avatar declared. "You search Jaycee." He opened his glider and left his friends.

"Be careful," Katara called after him, but he didn't hear it anymore.

"Jaycee!" Sokka cried into the forest. "You can come out now, they're gone!"

A few seconds later the girl jumped on a nearby branch, Momo right after her, landing on her shoulder.

"They'll come back if you keep yelling like this," she advised her friend before looking around. "What happened?"

"They took Appa and disappeared," Katara explained. "Aang went to see if he can find them.

0o0o0

A few minutes later the boy came back.

"A bunch of Fire Nation people captured him," he said. "They set camp on an island on a nearby river. The only way to get there is by boat."

"How many?" Suki questioned.

"About twenty, I think," Aang told her. "And at least half of them are Firebenders."

"We have to go and free Appa," the Waterbender declared.

"But how?" Toph asked. "We don't have boats. And I can't see anything in water."

"And even if we had, they'd spot us before we even reach them," the Kyoshi Warrior noticed.

"We're outnumbered and they have a clear opportunity," Jaycee summarized a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"And Appa," Sokka added to her sentence.

"…So what are we going to do then?" the girl finished her sentence. A couple of seconds passed as the friends remained in silence, thinking about possibilities to get their bison back.

0o0o0

"I have a plan," Zuko suddenly announced. His friends looked at him questioningly. "Jaycee," he said, pointing at a nearby tree which was full of leaves, "you go and hide up there, and when I give you a signal, use your airbending to make some bushes move as if we were in them. When they got there, Aang will do the same a little distance apart. If they fall for it, then you two keep doing that until they reach the cliff at the end of this forest. The rest of us will wait there and attack them when they have nowhere to go."

The rest of the group exchanged some unsure looks.

"But what if they won't fall for it?" Katara worried. Her friend seemed to feel slightly uncomfortable answering.

"Well," he explained, "in that case Aang and Jaycee will have to show themselves and lure them to us."

"You want me to play bait for a bunch of Firebenders?" Jaycee exclaimed unbelievingly. "Thanks, but I'm not interested in suicide."

"No offence Zuko, but I think that's a little too dangerous," Aang agreed. The Firebender tried to defend his idea.

"You're Airbenders," he stated. "You can run fast enough."

"Well, that's right, but…" the Avatar tried to explain, but the Firebender interrupted him.

"See?" he said. "Come on, you've just got to trust me."

Jaycee, who stood behind the rest of the group, shrugged.

"Okay," she declared with an indifferent voice before turning around and jumping at the tree Zuko had pointed at before, tired of arguing; but none of them noticed her.

"I don't know," Katara doubted. "It still seems wrong to send them out alone."

"Yeah, we can't risk losing the last Airbenders. Though I'd love to beat those guys up," Toph interjected.

"We won't lose them," Zuko declared convinced. "They're the Avatar and a Masterbender. I'd help them, but we have to wait at the cliff. Come on, they've dealt with worse."

"How are we going to take them anyway?" Suki wanted to know. Her boyfriend put his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh come on, we're on our way to defeat the Firelord!" he said. "We'll be able to take down some Fire Nation jerks."

"Hey!" the Prince shouted at his friend offended.

"What?" Sokka replied. "It's true."

"Whatever," Zuko shook his head. "So, are you in now?"

"I'll do it," Aang announced.

"Aang, no, it's too dangerous," Katara tried to stop him, but he shook his head.

"No, Zuko's right," he declared. "This might be our only chance to get Appa back.

The Firebender nodded.

"Alright," he said. "Aang, you climb on that tree over there and wait until Jaycee…" he looked around.

"Hey, where'd she go?" Sokka wondered. Suddenly the Masterbender's voice appeared above their heads.

"I'm up here waiting for my signal. Are you finally done arguing?" she wanted to know, sitting on the branch Zuko had shown her.

"I… guess…" Zuko shrugged. The Avatar went up a tree near her.

"Alright," the Prince said again. "We go and hide at the cliff. Wait five minutes and then go."

The Airbenders nodded and the rest of the team went into the forest. About five minutes later, Aang turned to his friend.

"I think it's about time," he told her. Jaycee nodded and started to jump from tree to tree towards the river.

"I don't think they'll fall for the bush trick," she assumed.

"Me neither," the Avatar agreed. "But we should still try it."

Aang led the way and they both stopped as the island came in sight.

"And how exactly are they supposed to see the bushes over here move?" the girl wanted to know. Aang moved some leaves with his airbending, but nothing happened.

"I guess this means Plan B," he assumed. Then he jumped down the tree, Jaycee following him, and took a deep breath.

"Hey you idiots, over here," he yelled. "I want my bison back!"

As soon as the Airbenders had their enemies' attention they spread out into two different directions, fireballs flying after them. They watched as the boats set off the shore behind them, and soon after the Firebenders were at the mainland.

"Get the Avatar," one of them ordered.

"Yeah, get me!" Aang agreed, then he and his friend ran away, he laughing and mocking their followers, she just fleeing, not paying attention to him; dodging fireballs whenever they came, a panicked expression at her face.

As they arrived at the edge of the cliff, the Firebenders circled them, cutting off their way to escape.

"Dead end," one of them smirked. "You have nowhere to go."

"Are you sure?" the boy asked. Right in that moment his allies came out from where they had been hiding and attacked.

0o0o0

During the fight Aang lost his staff, which landed near Jaycee, so she picked it up and used it for airbending. When they had almost defeated their enemies; only three of them were left – the rest of them had either flee or laid at the ground unconscious – suddenly one of them hit Zuko and made him stumble towards the edge of the cliff. For a moment it looked like he would fall, but then he caught himself again. Just when his friends breathed a sigh of relief the enemy Firebender shot a blast of fire at the Prince again and he fell.

His friends gasped and yelled his name in shock. Jaycee, the staff still in her hands, opened it to a glider and jumped after her ally in less than a second.

Falling, Zuko saw someone coming after him with the glider, but the reflection of the rising sun and the fact that he was about to die made it hard to figure out who it was.

Jaycee caught him right before he hit the ground, but not having flown a glider before they almost crashed into a nearby tree before she managed it to fly somewhat straightly upwards. On their way up, however, they almost hit the stone wall beside them.

"What are you doing?" Zuko yelled as they almost smashed against it again.

"I don't know," the Airbender replied, trying to avoid the crash for a third time.

The Prince looked at her, apparently shocked and confused to see her instead of Aang.

When they finally arrived and did a crash landing between their friends, they had already defeated the remained attackers and rushed forward to help their allies.

Zuko got up slowly, holding his head, while Jaycee sat on the ground, shivering and staring at a random spot in the distance.

0o0o0

They all watched her sitting; she didn't even move as Zuko slowly walked over to her from behind.

"Thank you," he said calmly, still a little confused. The girl just shrugged.

"You flew," the Firebender stated, more to himself than to his friend.

"Are they gone?" Jaycee wanted to know, ignoring his statement.

"Yeah," Zuko assured her.

"Good." The Masterbender remained silent and still didn't move. Their friends continued watching without saying a word. After a small break the Prince started speaking again.

"Are you just going to take my word for it?" he wondered, noticing that she didn't assure herself that the enemies were gone.

"Why would you lie?" Jaycee asked emotionless, not expecting an answer; still paralyzed from her flight.

"Let's get Appa and move on," Aang interrupted. "I want to find a nice place to set camp for the night before it gets dark."

They freed the bison and, after a long session of greeting and petting, packed their stuff and set off, away from the now empty island.

They flew the whole day, only taking small breaks to eat and practice a little bit, and as they finally found a light spot in a forest of a nearby town at sunset they were all glad the day was finally over.

0o0o0

"I'm going to get some dinner in the town nearby. Anyone with me?" Zuko looked at his allies, all tired from the long day. He was tired too, of course, but also hungry and he didn't plan to sleep with an empty stomach if not necessary.

"No thanks, I just want to sleep," Aang replied, letting out a yawn and heading towards Appa to lie down at his leg.

"What he said," Toph agreed, then she earthbended a tent and was off, too.

Katara and Suki were already asleep between Aang and Sokka, who lazily waved a hand to his ally.

"Just bring something for breakfast," he told him before drifting off to sleep.

The Firebender sighed in agreement and turned around to go to the small town alone, but after he had went a few steps he heard a slight 'thud' and felt a small brush of air coming from behind, though it was a windless night. He turned around to face Jaycee who had probably just jumped out of a tree.

"I'm coming with you," she announced with an indifferent look at her face, then she started heading towards the lights of the village. Zuko just shrugged and followed her, somewhat glad that the Airbender was voluntarily accompanying him.

Jaycee's indifference vanished as they entered the village. Though it was getting dark there were still many people outside, getting supplies before the shops closed or simply wandering around alone or with friends. The girl hid behind her ally, trying to look into every direction; at every single person at the same time to notice incoming danger, which ended up to her running almost in panic in circles. After that going on for a few minutes Zuko finally turned around to the spinning girl and grabbed one of her wrists to make her look at him.

"Can you quit it? You're driving me crazy!" he yelled angrily at her, her expression became shocked as she stared at him for a few seconds before an old man who slightly brushed her arm as he passed made her yelp and her head turn around again.

"I'm sorry, what?" Jaycee exclaimed. "This is the first time I'm in a town without hiding and waiting for someone to leave their stuff unguarded, and it's the biggest town I've ever seen! You probably see crowds like this every day, but let me tell you, I don't! And it being a town with Fire Nation people at each corner doesn't really make it better. So if you have a problem with me being on guard then just tell me and I'll go back to the others." She glared at him angrily, but Zuko could still see the fear in her eyes, it made him regret what he had said immediately.

"I'm sorry, you're right," he apologized, letting her wrist go with a slight blush as he noticed he was still holding it. "I just forget that you're not used to have a normal life every time. I mean, it's not like you're not normal or something, what I meant was that, umm…"

"Let's get some food and leave this place," his ally interrupted him with an annoyed sigh. The Firebender nodded and went to a nearby marked stand which sold fruits; he picked some, paid and headed to the next stand. Jaycee followed him and watched him interested, though she still turned around at every movement and almost knocked someone down as she was mistaken for someone's girlfriend and suddenly hugged from behind. She shrieked and pushed him away, Zuko kept her from attacking the confused guy in the last second. He apologized quickly and ran off.

"Can we go back, _please_?" the girl begged, still shuddering and breathing heavily.

"Of course," her ally agreed as he saw her anxious face. "We have enough food for the next few days."

"Make it one day; remember that we have Sokka," she commented sarcastically, which caused Zuko to chuckle slightly. She turned to him surprised.

"Whoa, was that a laugh?" she asked. "I'm in a town, you're laughing… We're writing history today!"

Zuko looked a bit annoyed as his face slightly flushed again.

"I've laughed before," he announced with his typical annoyed and slightly angry glare at his face again, so that it didn't seem like he was even able to laugh. "You just didn't happen to be there."

Jaycee suddenly burst into laughter for a second, then she noticed people staring her way and immediately hid behind the Firebender again. He sighed once more.

"Let's go back and eat," he proposed and she nodded, following him as he made his way back to the forest in which they were camping. A few streets later, though, they came past a building with a small terrace in the front, a few chairs and tables, and people sitting and chatting. A delicious smell made the girl turn around.

"Look, food!" she said happily and pointed to the building as if she had discovered something incredibly amazing. Zuko gave her a weird look like she was crazy or something.

"It's a restaurant. What did you expect?" he wanted to know with a slight sarcasm in his voice. Jaycee seemed confused.

"A what now?" she asked. A flash of realization flushed over the Prince's face.

"Oh yeah, right. Well, see, you sit down at a table and order food, then the employees make it, bring it to you and you eat it. Simple," he explained. His friend still didn't really understand it.

"And they just give you everything you ordered without you doing anything?" she wanted to know, a bit irritated.

"Yeah, you just sit down and wait for your dinner to come to you," Zuko responded, feeling a bit weird that he had to explain what a restaurant was. Jaycee smirked sarcastically.

"So all these years I've spent searching for food I could've just come to one of these restau-whatever thingies?" she asked.

"Well, you do have to pay," the Firebender responded.

"I knew there was a rub," the girl announced. Suddenly her stomach growled.

"You know what?" Zuko turned over to her. "You can try yourself. Come on." He waved his hand to show her to follow him and headed towards the stairs which led to the terrace.

"Really?" Jaycee wondered, still standing at the same place, turning her head towards the crowd in her back every few seconds.

"Of course, why else would I say it?" the Prince replied annoyed. "Just come on, I'll pay." The Masterbender smirked as she followed him.

"You'll have to. I don't have money; neither do I know how to use it."

Zuko led his ally to a free table with two chairs, they both sat down and he took his menu and opened it to look at the offers. A few moments later he noticed Jaycee looking at him with a questioning look; her menu still lying in front of her.

"You, umm, can choose what you want to eat from this," he explained and held his menu up. "Take whatever you want. Oh, um, you _can _read, right?"

"Uh, yeah, a little, mommy – I mean, my mother taught me, just didn't practice in a while. I'll get along," she told her ally as she opened her menu as well and began studying the several offered meals. The Firebender continued reading his own until his friend's voice distracted him again.

"Umm, Zuko…?" Jaycee asked him a bit unsure, a faint flush on her cheeks, which, he had to admit, somehow suited her.

"Should I read it out for you?" he wanted to know, no sarcasm in his voice. Her cheeks flushed even more.

"No, thanks, I'm fine, it's just… I have no idea what this all means. I mean, I can imagine what a smoked sea slug is, though I don't really want to know, but… for example, what are dumplings?" she asked, giving her ally a clueless expression.

Zuko could see the uncomfortable sentiment his friend was in, he started to have second thoughts about his idea with the restaurant. Actually they had been on their way back, out of the busy and filled streets of the village into the quiet forest. Jaycee had been looking forward to it, and then he idiot had to hold her up. He could still see her head turning whenever someone shouted something while passing by, and her eyes trying to cover every single inch of her surrounding field with her gaze. However, she glanced back to her ally and seemed to interpret his glare the right way.

"You know what?" she proposed. "I'll just let you choose for me. Just don't take anything too spicy, please." With that she put the menu back at the table and leaned back to take another intense and careful glance down the terrace.

"Oh, umm, okay…" the Prince agreed, looking for something that his friend would maybe like.

"How about roast duck," he asked. "It's one of my uncle's favorites. It's, well, a roast duck." In his mind, Zuko slapped his forehead, that last sentence had been really unnecessary.

"I would've never guessed that," The girl smiled. "Sounds good."

The Firebender called the waiter and ordered their dinner.

"And now, we'll just wait for the service," he told her as he leaned back in his seat.

As their dinner finally came Jaycee giggled slightly.

"Service!" she whispered cheerfully which made her ally shake his head at her childish behavior.

"Enjoy your meal," the employee said with a smile and gave Zuko a quick, knowing glance. His face flushed as he started to feel uncomfortable sitting at a restaurant in the evening with a girl. Said girl, however, did not realize the awkward situation. She probably didn't even know why it would be weird to get dinner with a friend – well, ally. The Prince forced himself to calm down. He watched as Jaycee was just about to grab a piece of duck and bite into it as he quickly held her up.

"Hey, chopsticks, remember?" he reminded her. The Airbender raised an eyebrow.

"What?" she asked.

"Chopsticks!" he repeated.

"What's that?" she wanted to know. In his mind the Firebender facepalmed himself again, partly for her lack of acknowledgement and partly for him being so stupid to drag the poor girl into that. He held up his own pair and clapped them together a few times, showing his friend how to hold them.

"You eat with them. Not your hands. That's indecent," he explained. Jaycee nodded and tried to mimic him, though it took her a few tries to deliver the meat into her mouth. After a few minutes she seemed to slowly get the hang of it. Something else crossed Zuko's mind.

"Can I ask you something?" he wanted to know. The Masterbender turned her glance to him.

"M-hmm" she agreed, then she swallowed. "Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I was wondering," the Prince stated," since you and Aang are both Airbenders, how comes that you eat meat? I thought Airbenders usually live vegetarian."

Jaycee chewed on her roast duck again before she answered.

"In the camp, 'vegetarian' wasn't an option. Either you eat what you get or you'll starve. Maybe you would've made it through summer without meat, but winter would've been impossible," the girl explained to him.

"Oh, that makes sense," Zuko nodded, not knowing what to reply. They ate quietly for a few minutes until the silence became awkward, at least to the Firebender. Jaycee seemed, within the circumstances, means the crowd of people starting to head home, more or less relaxed. On the other side, she didn't get the 'deeper meaning' of their shared dinner, Zuko did, and it made his face flush once more. Practically, they both hoped to be done eating soon, so they could go back to the others and get some sleep. The Airbender yawned, shoving her empty dish a bit apart from herself. The Firebender finished his meal as well and waved for the waiter.

"We'd like to pay," he announced as a man about 40 years old had arrived at their table. He just nodded and took the dishes, then he headed to the kitchen. Jaycee leaned a bit closer to her ally, not too close, only enough so he could hear her lowered voice.

"Oh my, what a communicative person," she remarked sarcastically.

"The people here are just too friendly," Zuko smirked. "He didn't even want my money, that's so nice of him." The girl smirked back.

"Duh, I don't really understand money jokes, you'll really have to explain that whole money stuff to me one day," she told him. He gave her a slight smile, pushing his chair backwards to get up.

"Shall we go?" he asked as he laid some coins at the table, in case the waiter noticed his mistake. Jaycee nodded and stood up as well.

"No need to ask me twice," she announced and proceeded to leave the terrace. "Restau-whatever they're called again are fine, but I appreciate a nice, quiet forest."

The Prince felt a wave of guilt rising up inside him again.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this restaurant," he apologized. "You should've just said no. I know about your fears and all." The girl smiled.

"Fears can be overcome if worse comes to worst," she told him. "By the way, it was actually kind of nice." He smiled back.

"Thanks again for saving me today," Zuko told his friend, beginning to feel better around her. It started to seem like she really tried to get along with him, despite the _mistakes_ he'd made in the past.

"You know," Jaycee added, "if I already can't be alone, then it's nice to hang out with someone who doesn't talk the whole time. That's distracting."

The Firebender wanted to tell her something to let her know that she didn't have to look out for danger the whole time. But it was hard to tell that to someone who had already been attacked _because _they didn't look out. He wanted to let her know that he would always look for her, but he couldn't find the right words without making it sound cheesy. Zuko had never been the type of person to say cheesy and romantic things, that didn't fit his character. So he just kept quiet as they walked back to their current hideout, a slight smile on his lips.

"By the way, there's still one thing I don't get," Jaycee suddenly interrupted the silence. Her ally turned over to her.

"What is it?" he wanted to know.

"When we were at that restau-I-still-can't remember," she began.

"Restaurant," her ally reminded her.

"Right," she agreed. "Well, that guy who took our orders, remember?" Zuko nodded, waiting for her to go on.

"Why was he looking at you that weirdly? As the people beside us did too, by the way. Like they would know something we don't. Or at least I don't." Jaycee looked at the Prince, waiting for an answer. He immediately flushed again.

"I, umm, don't know…" he tried to avoid the answer. "You know what? When we arrive back at the camp I'll, umm, teach you how to use money, okay?"

The Airbender nodded, knowing that her ally had changed the subject. She would just ask someone else when they got up. It seemed to be important.

**A/N**

**I love how the last part turned out ^-^ Actually I had the restaurant-scene before I even started writing the story but I like it so much that I decided to rewrite it a bit so it would fit in c: It may be a slight bit OOC for Zuko but come on, he's in love, so it's okay, right? …Right? Just imagine Zuko awkwardly sitting around while Jaycee turns around at every sudden noise. Also, I wanted to point out how unfamiliar she is with other persons everyday stuff.**

**By the way, certain things will made clear if I decide to publish this in Jaycee's POV. The first chapter is almost done, it's something like a prequel to this; Jaycee talking about herself and her life before she meets Aang and Katara. It will also be explained why she immediately listened to Zuko in this chapter (in case you didn't got it). It's because Katara told her to TRUST people more, and Zuko said TRUST me. You see where I'm going with this? Btw, when the Firebenders chased after her, she regretted it.**

**Also it may be a little weird that Appa got captured without anyone noticing it, not even Toph, but it was necessary for the plot, let's just assume she was too tired to take a "look" when Jaycee said someone was coming.**

BlueStripedPolo: Thank you very much for your review! I'm glad I managed it to keep everyone in character and write in somewhat logical English :P

You know, Katara and Jaycee were actually always planned to have a talk and I think your first question was answered with this chapter, wasn't it? They do have a connection, but Jaycee doesn't want to stand too close to anyone else because she's still afraid.

Well, it's a bit difficult to explain "Masterbenders". To be honest, I came up with it before watching the entire show. Really, it was almost exactly one year ago, I was, like now, in Hungary, and I was bored, so I decided to watch TV. The very first episode I saw was Zuko alone. You can guess why I started watching xD. I came up with Jaycee the same day, although she had a slightly different name and was a total Mary Sue (I didn't know what that is back then; that one year feels like an eternity… I couldn't even speak English properly before I decided that the German translation of Avatar is crappy). But I'm trailing off… You didn't ask for my whole life story ;)

First, it should be made clear that a Masterbender and a Bending Master are two different things. Everyone can master a type of bending, the Avatar can master four, but Masterbenders are born. I should have come up with a better term for it, such as "Surpremebender" or so, but my English skills were too much on beginners level to think of something like that, and besides, it just sounds… weird, to say the least. My explanation with "everything with a little bit of their element inside" was, I admit, a bad example. The truth is that even I don't know exactly what I was thinking when I came up with it. As I said, Jaycee was a Mary Sue; that's why I made her paranoid and not able to use her powers (I hope that changes things for her). For example, a Masterfirebender (okay, that sounds a bit weird too, I know) is usually as strong as a normal Firebender during Sozin's Comet (with some training; they don't blow up their mothers from inside the womb or so. And now please don't ask me how they are during Sozin's Comet. Let's just say that never happened). For Jaycee… imagine Aang in the Avatar State, using nothing but airbending and not glowing (and having hair :P) But as I said, she can't use her powers and Aang has more training, so he's actually the better bender.

I hope this clears things up, at least a little bit. Again, thank you very much, and I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the story as well (as soon as I get a good idea about what to write in the last chapter…(the one before Sozin's Comet starts)). And I think I'll do what you told me with the Ember Island Players :D

**Anyways thanks to everyone else who gave me feedback too, I'm glad my work pays off (hard work… I'm writing mostly during school time when I'm bored in class… ehum… well, I AM learning English, right?)**

**Please give me even more feedback! :D Thanks ;)**


	4. Chapter 4 - Back in Memories

**A/N**

**I finally got to upload it! Sorry, I wanted to update almost two weeks ago but there's still little to no internet access here :/ I'm at my aunt's house now because she insisted to pre-celebrate my birthday (i'll turn 15 in 3 days :D) and made me a Zuko-cake and Azula-style hair ^-^ (She always calls me princess lol). I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's pretty long since it contains a lot of flashback (what did you expect when you've read the title?)**

**Thanks for the new review (and the old ones as well) :D I'll only answer reviews when they contain questions but I'm always fangirling when I see that someone likes my story :D (*foam)**

**Rated T for minor torture and some… mental images. I don't think it's that bad, just a bit sad maybe, but better safe than sorry :)**

**I do not own Avatar: tLA, it belongs to Nickelodeon and all the awesome people who helped making it**

**Book 3: Fire**

**Chapter 20: Back in memories**

_"Honey, we're out of Jewelweed and Ketu is full of insect bites. Would you please go and get some?"_

_Moyina, the healer of the small camp held the four-year-old boy in her arms, examining his bare skin. His mother Amita stood beside them, trying to keep her little son from scratching himself._

_"You poor thing, you'll just make it worse, stop it," she told him, but as soon as she looked away again Ketu continued. _

_"Okay, mommy," Moyina's nine-year-old daughter yelled joyfully before she started to run towards the small, mossy path between two mountains which led to the forest._

_"And don't you go alone!" her mother yelled after her as she watched her child disappear._

_Jaycee turned around and ran back to the main campsite, to the tent of her best friend._

_"Hey, Blossom, I need some herbs for mommy will you come with me to get them?" she exclaimed as soon as she spotted her._

_Blossom, who had just finished eating a bowl of wood sorrel, clove and dandelion salad, smiled widely at her friend as she saw her running towards her, then she tossed the bowl away and got up. _

_"Coming," she yelled back, but after she had run a few steps her mother called her back._

_"Sweetie, aren't you forgetting something?" she asked with a requesting voice._

_"Whoops," Blossom apologized, turning around. "Sorry mom."_

_The girl ran back, picked the bowl up from the ground and put it into a wooden box filled with other used plates and cups._

_"I'll wash them when I come back, okay?" she promised. "Can I go now?"_

_"Fine, but take care. And be back before sundown," her mother agreed smiling._

_"I'm first at the path," Jaycee challenged her friend and started running._

_"Never," Blossom replied and ran after her._

_The two little girls ran towards the path together, laughing and jostling each other playfully._

_"Do you remember how Jewelweed looks like?" the future healer asked her friend who nodded. They started searching, and soon they both had collected large bunches of the herbs. Jaycee decided that they had enough for Ketu and the whole leftovers of the entire camp – which weren't that many though – and so they headed back to their hidden home._

_"Hey, there's still some time until sundown, do you wanna play hide-and-seek?" Blossom asked._

_"If mommy lets me – sure!" the girl said, very thrilled about the idea. She immediately started to hurry towards her large home tent in which her mother was still talking to Ketu. Suddenly, a boy named Symo ran over to her waving his arms._

_"Oh no, not again," Blossom whispered annoyed and Jaycee rolled her eyes in agreement._

_"Hey girls!" he yelled with a big grin at his face. "What are you doing?"_

_"Umm, I've got to help mommy with her work," the light haired girl replied holding up the Jewelweed._

_"Yeah, and I've got to help her help her mother," the other child added. "Sorry."_

_Symo looked disappointed for a moment, but he didn't give up yet._

_"Can I help you? Here, I take it for you!" he offered them, trying to take Jaycee's herbs, but she held them up so he couldn't reach them._

_"NO, thanks," Jaycee said determined. Symo had been her friend once, but since he had developed an obvious crush on her he had become annoying. He was one year younger than her, plus he had a very weird behavior, he always clung to his father, despite being eight years old. He wouldn't even leave the camp without him. It had always been fun to play with him when they all had been younger, but those times had changed, the boy just couldn't accept it._

_Symo just wanted to say something as Jaycee suddenly pointed at a spot in the distance._

_"What's that?" she asked. Her friends followed her glance and saw a large cloud of black smoke rising upwards darkening the sky._

_"I don't know…"the boy answered._

_"It looks like someone is making a campfire. A LARGE campfire," Blossom added._

_Then the other people of the camp one after another spotted it too and started screaming panic-fueled and running around._

_"The Fire Nation is coming!" someone shouted._

_"How did they find us?" someone else screamed. _

_Jaycee dropped her Jewelweed in shock as she realized what that meant._

_"MOMMY!" she cried, using her airbending to run home as fast as she could. Moyina just stepped out of her tent, Amita following her, carrying her little son._

_"What happened, honey?" she asked, but then she saw it herself. "Oh no…" she whispered. Then she started pushing her daughter into the direction of the forest, away from the nearing danger._

_"Run!" she commanded. "Hide in the forest! You know which plants you can eat, you're smart enough to make it!"_

_"What about you?" the girl wanted to know, her large eyes filled with tears._

_"I'll try to follow you," her mother promised. "But whatever happens, don't turn back. Now GO!"_

_Jaycee started to run in the direction her mother had told her to, but before he could reach the path loud screams were heard and soldiers started to climb over the rock wall surrounding the camp and attack the Air Nomads. The girl looked at them paralyzed, not able to move, then suddenly Moyina pushed her behind a bush._

_"Don't move until I tell you to," she commanded before she ran back to her tent to get something._

_The little girl looked around terrified. Everything burnt: Tents, bushes, even people. People she knew. People she loved. Some of the Airbenders tried to fight back, but most of them ran away, just to get struck into the back by a blast of fire. Jaycee wanted to cover her eyes, but she still couldn't move. Suddenly she spotted Blossom. She ran as fast as she could, she was already at the entrance of the path to the safe forest as a Firebender appeared behind her and shot her down. Blossom, the ten-year-old best friend of Jaycee, fell to the ground and didn't get up, her clothes slightly smoking. The hiding girl started to scream._

_Then her mother ran out of her tent, a scroll in her hands which had once belonged to her husband and Jaycee's father Tilon who had died before his daughter's birth. Moyina started to make her way to her daughter between all the dead or dying persons, trying not to look at them, as suddenly a large net fell over her making her hit the ground. Immediately soldiers were above her, holding her down. _

_"Run, honey," she cried to her daughter, but Jaycee didn't move. "I'll follow you!"_

_Deep inside the girl knew that her mother was lying. So she got up and ran towards her._

_"Mommy," she yelled._

_"No honey, run away!" Moyina's voice panicked as she saw her daughter running straightly into the arms of the Firebenders. But it was too late. Another net was tossed over the girl who fell beside her mother, screaming. Moyina reached out to grab Jaycee's hand, then the girl felt a dull pain at the back of her head. Then blackness._

Somewhere near a bird chirped loudly. Jaycee awoke from her dream, covered in sweat. After making sure that she wasn't in danger she laid back down into a comfortable position on her branch, forcing herself to calm down and get back to sleep.

_The heavy metal door suddenly flung open and two men, probably prison guards, entered the room. The woman and her daughter, cuddled together on the cold stone floor, raised their heads. The room was divided in the middle by huge iron bars; the door was on one side of them, the prisoners on the other._

_"Welcome in the Fire Nation," one of them greeted. "How does it feel, being the last of your kind?"_

_The girl hid deeper in her mother's clothes as the man continued speaking._

_"You may wonder why we left you alive. Don't worry, it won't be forever. But for now, you're here because you're going to tell us something. Being Airbenders, you must know where our greatest enemy is located, and you will share that knowledge with us. Where is the Avatar?"_

_Moyina kept hold of her child and her face remained emotionless except for a glare at the two men as she replied._

_"I don't know. None of us does. He wasn't part of our camp."_

_"Very well," the man announced. "We'll come back tomorrow to see if you change your mind."_

_The soldiers left again, leaving Jaycee and her mother alone. The little girl looked up._

_"Mommy, I want to go home," she declared, hugging the woman tightly and burying her head in her clothes. "I want to play with Blossom."_

_"I know, honey," Moyina told her, hugging back. "It'll be alright."_

_"No it won't," her daughter refused. "They're all gone."_

_The nine year old girl started to cry. Her mother didn't respond. She knew very well that Jaycee was right. Instead, she started to sing familiar songs they had sung very often in the evenings when they had sat by the fire, until her daughter eventually fell asleep._

_0~o~0~o~0_

_The two men came back every day, demanding the same over and over again. After about a week they brought two children with them, a girl and a boy, about Jaycee's age._

_"Hello, little one," the girl addressed Jaycee with an innocent smile, even though she was obviously younger than her. "I'm Princess Azula, and this is my brother Zuzu. Our father said that we should talk to you a little bit."_

_Jaycee just stared at the children, too frightened to talk, as the boy stepped forward to his sister._

_"I told you to stop calling me that," he told her angrily. "My name is Zuko!"_

_"Who cares?" Azula questioned, shrugging. "They're not going to tell anyone." Zuko's eyes widened slightly as he realized what that meant and looked back at the girl, not even as old as him._

_"Listen," he said to the prisoners. "Maybe I can convince my father to set you free. You just need to tell us what you know about the Avatar."_

_"You give yourself too much credit," his sister interrupted him. "Dad would never let them go."_

_"But she's so young!" the boy claimed. "That could be you."_

_"How can you compare me to these filthy peasants?" Azula wondered, looking at her brother in disbelief. "They should be glad they're allowed to be in this palace. Living in the mountains, I'm sure it must feel great to have a solid roof above their heads. They should be graceful to us and tell us everything we ask for."_

_"Azula!" The Prince tried to stop her but she shook her head._

_"What" she questioned, glaring at Zuko. "Are you really as pathetic as they? You're the prince of the Fire Nation. These people should be bowing to you, but, oh well, I'll have mercy. They probably don't even know how that is done."_

_"Enough, Azula," he commanded. "Can't you see how scared they are? I'm sure there were more than just these seven people we have. Just imagine what they went through."_

_"Well, maybe they could work here as servants if you insist," Azula suggested, growing tired of her brother's attempts to save the weak." But we don't have all day." She turned to the prisoners." Where is the Avatar? I'm hungry and want to go eat something now."_

_"I can only tell you what I told the other ones who asked us," Moyina answered her, trying to stay calm towards the children. "He wasn't part of our camp. I've never met him and I don't know where he is."_

_"I wasn't talking to you," the princess snapped at her before her voice went sweet and innocent again. "Come on little girl, are you sure there wasn't anyone who could bend all four elements? If you tell me, I'll maybe ask the servants to bring you some real food down here."_

_Jaycee just stared at her with wide eyes, unable to answer. Zuko quickly pushed his sister out of the way and kneeled down to look into the girl's eyes straightly._

_"You don't need to be afraid of us," he told her calmly, giving her an encouraging smile. "I won't harm you. What's your name?"_

_"…Jaycee," she replied, still hiding in her mother's arms, watching the princess glaring at her._

_"How old are you, Jaycee?" the boy wanted to know, making her look at him instead._

_"N-nine," she stuttered, still scared of the girl behind the apparently nice boy._

_"Do you know anything about the Avatar?" he asked calmly, giving Jaycee a questioning look. She shook her head, not able to speak much more._

_"Azula, they really don't know," Zuko turned towards his sister, a pleading look at his face. She just shrugged._

_"Father said they do," she declared, not really caring if that was true or not._

_"Then he is wrong!" her brother almost shouted loudly, glaring back at her furiously._

_"How dare you question father?!" Azula yelled back before turning towards Jaycee again. "I know you know where he is. Now tell me!"_

_"I don't know!" the girl shrieked, holding her arms in front of her face to hide it from the one year younger princess._

_"Liar!" she shouted, and, before anyone could interfere, shot a huge blast of fire towards the little girl. Jaycee screamed in agony as it hit her right upper arm, setting her clothes and skin on fire. Her mother quickly put it out and hugged her daughter tightly._

_"Azula!" the prince yelled shocked as he watched the young airbender holding her arm and sobbing._

_"That's what you get for lying," she announced, almost smirking at Jaycee's pained expression. "Remember it."_

_The children left, Zuko glancing back for a last time, giving the woman and her daughter a sympathetic look, then the men continued their questioning every day. Until, some days later, they stopped. Jaycee and her mother sat together as always, the girl's right arm wrapped into a piece of cloth, and waited for something to happen. Suddenly they heard something coming from far away. As they held their breaths and listened, they could clearly recognize the sound of a pain filled scream, muffled through the thick walls._

_"What's happening?" Jaycee wanted to know, fear clinging in her voice._

_"I'm not sure," Moyina replied. "Don't listen."_

_The little girl tried to focus on something else, but the screams were impossible for her to ignore. About a minute later her eyes widened._

_"Mommy," she said, shivering. "That sounds like Tenro!"_

_A tear glistened in the woman's eyes as she recognized the voice as well. Instead of answering she covered her daughter's ears with her hands and started rocking forwards and backwards to calm her while the screams ended – not slowly fading, but abruptly. Jaycee couldn't hear it; neither could she see the single tear that escaped her mother's eye. Moyina knew that there was one Air Nomad less left. And she also knew it had just started._

_For four days, the same happened over and over again. The child always made out the voices before her mother covered her ears again. Mya, Nima, Ryung, Hyun Bae. It became harder to ignore the pain filled screams since their source became louder and closer each day. At the fourth day Moyina could also hear muffled shouting of some unknown voices, probably other prison guards or such. And at the fifth day, her time had come._

_0~o~0~o~0_

_Jaycee slept in her mother's lap as the door flung open and three men entered. They opened the cell door without saying a word, then two of them grabbed the woman while the third one held her still drowsy daughter back, and then they forcefully pulled Moyina out of her cell before locking it again, leaving Jaycee alone in it. _

_"Mommy!" she cried as she finally realized what was happening. She tried to fight the men with weak attempts of airbending, but the guards didn't even bother looking at her, tying the adult Airbender to the opposite wall using iron chains which were attached to it._

_"Let mommy go," the girl yelled, making a move that caused one of the men hit the wall in front of him face first. He turned around angrily._

_"I'll warn you, little brat, one more move and you're next," he threatened, letting a fire appear in his hands to demonstrate that he was serious. Jaycee stopped airbending and held onto the iron bars in a desperate attempt to open the door again, tears streaming down her face._

_"Please," Moyina begged, knowing what would happen next. "Not in front of her."_

_"Sorry sweetie," another man replied with a smirk. "We have orders from the Firelord. But I'm going to give you one last chance, in case you want to protect your cute little daughter from this. Answer our question and we will not harm any of you."_

_"You know that we are telling the truth," the woman yelled, trying to free her arms only to get chains cutting into her wrists. The days in prison had made her too weak to fight any of the men; even with her hands unbound; let alone tree. "You know very well that none of us knew! Why are you doing this?"_

_"Your choice," the prison guard told her, raising his arm with a flame in his hand. Moyina shot him a last hateful glare before she closed her eyes. She gritted her teeth, trying hard to remain quiet, for the sake of her daughter, but as soon as the fire hit her she knew it wasn't possible. A loud scream escaped her, answered by another one, coming from the cell in the opposite room. Jaycee was curled up on the floor covering her ears and screaming as loud as she could to overtone her mother, but she could still hear her agony._

_A couple of minutes later the door opened again and another man entered, the boy following him hesitantly. The sounds of torture stopped and the little girl opened her eyes slightly to peek at the boy. He seemed to feel shocked and uncomfortable being there and seeing what was happening._

_"Do it now," the man who had brought him ordered, pointing at the woman who was already too weak to even open her eyes anymore. Zuko looked at her, then back to Jaycee, before he spoke._

_"No," he refused._

_"What does that mean?" the man wondered. "You have orders, you know that."_

_"This is cruel!" the prince declared. "They don't know anything!"_

_"You will do as the Firelord commanded, or do I need to tell him that his own son is a traitorous wimp?" the prison guard threatened, grabbing the boy's arm fiercely before letting it go again._

_"As if he wouldn't already know that," another man muttered, causing his comrades to chuckle. Zuko broke his gaze away from Jaycee at those words._

_"I'm not a wimp!" he snapped. "Who are you to insult me like this?"_

_"Well then prove it and do as you're commanded," the prison guard beside him provoked him, gesturing his hand towards the woman again. Zuko gulped and took a deep breath as he positioned himself in front of the barely conscious woman. He created a fire and aimed at her chest before he clenched his eyes shut and threw his hand with the flame forward, hitting his target. Moyina let out a short scream which ended not even a second later, as if someone had suddenly covered her mouth. The prince opened his eyes and stared unbelievingly at the woman in front of him. She still hung from her chains, but there was no attempt of her to fight against the cut of the them anymore. She was motionless. Dead._

_"NO," Jaycee screamed, louder than before, making an airbending move against the prison guards and the Prince. Somehow she had suddenly become strong. She unleashed a powerful blast of air which blew the whole cell wall and the door to the room out of their ankles, shattering them into pieces. The men fell to the ground; a flying piece of the iron bars hit Zuko's head and knocked him unconscious, along with two of the guards. The other two quickly recovered and proceeded to get up, but another stream of air blew them down again. Jaycee found her way out of the building and began running towards the mountains which encircled the city, followed by Firebenders which tried to hit her. She airbended at them without looking back, until she finally reached the hills and disappeared behind them, the image of the boy's shocked golden eyes, along with her mother's scream, lingering in her mind._

Someone stumbled out of a tent before looking around to see if someone had been watching. Jaycee sat up, panting, and watched the boy with the golden eyes stretch his arms in the morning sun. She tried to imagine him doing something cruel to her mother again, but she just couldn't compare a guy who had trouble getting out of a tent without kissing the ground to a ruthless killer. Still having the memory of her dream in mind however, she untied her bag from a branch above her head and carefully jumped down the tree.

"Nice performance," she greeted him, watching him flush as he realized she had seen it.

"Good morning," he replied, trying to look somewhat authoritarian, despite having just woken up. "How'd you sleep?" he attempted to change the subject.

"Nah," the girl responded. "I keep having nightmares about your precious nation, but other than that, I'm fine."

Zuko didn't answer, and the girl wondered why she had to be so cruel. But she was just answering his question honestly, after all.

"Seems to me like you've slept better," she added, causing the Firebender to raise his eyebrow. "Nice hairstyle."

He quickly ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to bring it back into some order, though it remained looking overly shaggy.

"Are you always like this when you wake up?" Jaycee asked, trying to sound annoyed while holding back a snicker. "Hey, everyone else is still asleep. You wanted to tell me about money, remember?"

The prince nodded, relieved to be out of the awkward situation, and climbed back into his tent to get his money. Then he made his way outside again without a struggle and sat down on the grass. The Airbender sat beside him, making sure to have a few inches distance between them.

About ten minutes later Jaycee raised her head. Zuko interrupted his explanation and followed her glance to see Suki slowly getting up from Appa's leg, trying not to wake her friends.

"Morning," they both greeted her as she turned her head into their direction; she seemed to be surprised to see her allies sitting side by side.

"Hey," she replied, walking over to them. "What are you doing?"

"I'm teaching Jaycee how to use money," the prince explained.

"I figured it'd be useful if I got to have some one day," the girl added with a serious voice. The Kyoshi Warrior nodded.

"So, how was your trip yesterday?" she asked. "Did you find any food?"

"Yes, I think we can feed your boyfriend today," Jaycee told her. "As for tomorrow, he can get his meat himself; towns aren't really my thing."

Suki oppressed a laugh as she shot her friend a halfway angry glare.

"Right," she remembered. "I can't imagine how it might be living far away from civilization."

"Hey, you're making it sound like I'd be some kind of retarded hog-monkey!" the Airbender protested a bit offended. "Can hog-monkeys eat with chopsticks?"

The other girl looked at her in bewilderment as Jaycee explained.

"Zuko taught me when we were eating something yesterday in a restau… uhh, I keep forgetting that word; what was it again?"

"Restaurant," the Firebender muttered, flushing. Suki chuckled.

"You guys were at a restaurant?" she asked, laughing.

"Yeah. What's wrong with that?" Jaycee wondered.

"Nothing, nothing," the Kyoshi Warrior quickly assured her. "It's actually pretty cute."

"Cute?!" the Masterbender repeated, looking back and forth between her and Zuko who avoided her glance, glaring subtly at Suki instead.

"Never mind," she giggled as she saw his glare.

"I just wanted to show her how it feels to do stuff every normal person does," the prince clarified angrily.

"Hello?" Jaycee turned over to him. "I can hear you, you know?"

"Sorry," Zuko apologized quickly.

"Oh come on," Suki said. "You're just being taught how money works."

"Okay, you do have a point," the Airbender admitted, looking a bit thoughtful.

_0~o~0~o~0_

A couple of hours later the team flew over a wide area with mountains and forests on the left and a large, open field of grass on the right, both divided by a river.

"So what exactly did you two do yesterday evening?" Sokka wanted to know from Zuko.

"I already told you, we were just eating something," the Firebender replied annoyed.

"Leave him alone, Sokka," Katara said.

"Yeah, sure," Suki added sarcastically. "Two people… at a restaurant… watching the sunset..."

She intertwined her fingers and placed them at her chest, sighing heavily in a romantic gesture. She, Toph, Sokka and Aang began laughing as Zuko clenched his fists and looked away.

Meanwhile, Jaycee ignored them and stared at a spot between the mountains in the distance.

"Guys?" she asked, her voice sounding far away. "Could we land for a moment? I… need to see something here."

Everyone stopped laughing and looked at her surprised, but then Aang shrugged and turned around again.

"What are you doing?" Sokka exclaimed. "We need to hurry! If we don't arrive at Ember Island before the next morning we'll have to wait a whole day, otherwise someone could spot us! We've discussed this. So, no breaks, flying."

"Yip, yip," the Avatar yelled, steering Appa downwards to the grass.

"Are you even listening to me?" Sokka shouted. "We don't have time for… well, for whatever this is."

As they landed, the Masterbender jumped down from the bison's saddle and crossed the river using her airbending. Then she started to slowly walk towards the mountains, disappearing between them.

The others followed her confusedly, watching their friend follow a barely visible, mossy path, Sokka was still complaining, but they didn't question her until Jayce suddenly stopped.

"What is here?" Aang asked.

"I can sense a lot of destroyed stuff," Toph mentioned. The Airbender sighed.

"I thought so," she replied the blind girl. "I hoped that it would have been restored, but I never really believed that."

"What do you mean?" Zuko wanted to know. Jaycee touched the stone wall beside her with a sad look on her face.

"This… was my home," she explained. The other ones gasped and she continued. "When I recognized the area I wanted to see it. It's right behind those rocks."

She pointed at some mossy rocks in front of them, blocking the path.

"Then why don't you go?" Suki asked her ally. Jaycee shook her head.

"I'm afraid of what I might see," the girl told her.

Katara took her hand. Jaycee flinched in reflex but she didn't refuse. Aang put his hand on her other shoulder.

"When I saw that the Fire Nation had killed Monk Gyatso and the other Air Nomads, it was awful. But I'm still glad I've been there. It's better to know for sure that they're gone than to live in uncertainty. I know what I'm fighting for" he said.

"And we're with you," the Waterbender added. "You're not alone."

Jaycee nodded and started to keep walking, then she proceeded to climb the rocks. As her hand reached the top of them, she stopped for a moment. After taking a deep breath she finally lifted her head up over the stones.

In front of them was a small area with grass at some spots of the bottom and trees at the edges which were hiding it. At other parts of the bottom was just earth, but everywhere were things laying around. Broken wood sticks, tents which were torn to pieces, cooking utensils like pots and teacups, broken pieces of other glass and porcelain things and lots of other stuff. Some of the tents' sticks still stood, sticking into the ground. The broken tents or whatever they had been once stood in two circles, one of them larger and around the smaller one. In the middle of the place were stones laid in a small circle and mossy wood in it; probably a fireplace. And all of the things were burnt, shattered or somehow else destroyed. Marks of fire were everywhere – on the wood sticks, the tents, even the grass.

But the worst things were the skeletons. As it seemed like, most of them had been running away from something when dying. They laid at their front sides, the clothes at their backs awfully burnt. Some others had went down fighting, facing the enemy. The most horrific view was of a skeleton in a dress – probably a woman – and a smaller one, laying in her arms. Considering its size the person hadn't been much older than four or five.

Jaycee looked around for a moment, no emotion on her face. Then she started walking straightly into the ruins of her old home, sometimes pointing at things.

"This was our campfire place," she explained, more to herself than to the others, no sadness or any other emotion showing on her face. "We used to sit here together almost every evening, eating together, telling stories… Here was grandpa's tent. He was our oldest. Everyone just called him grandpa, but his real name was Kavi… Ketu and his family. He was four… My best friend Blossom… Our childhood friend Symo; he got annoying when he fell in love with me but it was still fun to mock him… Blossom's crush Maycen…"

In the end the Airbender finally stopped at the ruins of the largest tent, at the edge of the outer ring. She sighed and touched the burnt wooden sticks that had remained standing.

"Here's where I lived," she said. "And Mommy and Mune. My mother was the healer here, so we had the largest tent to store our plants and guest beds for the sick. She taught me and my sister." The Airbender shook her head to clear it and turned around, still emotionless.

"We can go now," she announced. "We have to hurry if we want to reach the Fire Nation before next sunrise.

Jaycee made her way past the others, over the rocks, through the mountains and onto Appa's saddle, who was resting beside the river. Looking in the distance, she waited until her friends arrived.

"Yip, yip," Aang yelled again and the bison rose op into the sky, taking the last survivor away from her shattered home.

After a few moments of silence, Zuko, who sat right next to Jaycee, turned his glance at the girl.

"I'm sorry," he said lowly. She glanced back into his face, her eyes suddenly filling with tears as she lost her controlled indifference. Then she threw herself into the arms of the closest person, which happened to be a very surprised Firebender, covering her face in his clothes.

"They're all gone," she sobbed. "No one survived."

Zuko petted his ally's back, not knowing what else to do. Everyone else looked at her, deep sad looks in their faces, not wanting to get any closer to the already horrified girl.

Another few hours later, when it was starting to become day, the team finally reached the shore of Ember Island.

_0~o~0~o~0_

In Appa's saddle, everyone sat quietly. No one made a sound or moved around very much. Jaycee still laid in Zuko's arms, now sleeping, her head resting on his chest and his arm slightly slung around her, a faint blush on his cheeks. As he spotted his family's house he tried to take his arm away, but she immediately woke up from the sudden move.

"We're there," the Firebender whispered to the girl as he noticed she was awake. She moaned sleepily, not ready to get up and keep her guard up again yet, and snuggled farther into his chest before she recognized her resting place. The Airbender shrieked and jumped away in shock, looking around with a panicked expression, then she turned deep red, just as Zuko did, too.

"Umm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… I mean, I never wanted to…" she stuttered, then the Prince interrupted her.

"It's okay, I, umm, should have waked you earlier, I just, umm…" his blush turned even darker as he tried to explain himself to the girl.

"I'm sorry about yesterday, too. I don't know what happened to me. I just kind of lost it," she told her ally and lowered her glance a bit saddened.

"It's alright," Katara replied, saving both Zuko and Jaycee from the uncomfortable situation. "It must have been hard for you to see your old home like that."

The Masterbender sighed.

"Yeah, it was," she said. "But I'm alright. I mean, I always knew they were gone. It was just different to actually _see_ them. I mean, what's left of them."

"We're there," Aang interposed.

They landed in the yard as the sun began to rise. They had just made it in time.

"Finally we're here!" Sokka exclaimed as he proceeded to jump out of the saddle. Aang jumped after him with an airbending move while Jaycee just slid down Appa's leg like her non-airbending allies.

"You say it," Aang agreed , starting to play with Momo.

"Don't set your hopes too high," Zuko told him. "We'll be training today; Sozin's comet will be here soon."

"Can't I just have a little break before?" the Avatar begged. His firebending teacher sighed.

"Fine," he then agreed. "But we start at noon."

"Hey Aang, do you think you could teach me how to do the Air Scooter?" Jaycee suddenly asked her friend. He smiled, apparently glad that she felt better again.

"Sure," he agreed, then he turned to Zuko. "Zuko, is it alright if we practice while you show the others the house?" The Firebender thought for a moment.

"Alright, we'll meet here later for your training, okay?" he said.

He and the rest of the team headed off to explore the house while Aang and Jaycee stayed on the courtyard.

_0~o~0~o~0_

"Hey, I think I figured it out," Jaycee exclaimed as she rushed passed Aang and some feet up the wall of the house; then she backflipped to the ground, landing beside her friend.

"That's great," the Avatar cheered. "Now try to catch me!" He created an air scooter for himself and went away quickly. The girl made a new one too and followed him. They laughed as they rushed across the court, chasing each other, until they eventually stopped at the stairs in front of the house and sat down.

"Phew, that was fun," Jaycee giggled, breathing heavily. Aang climbed at Appa's saddle, then he came back to his friend and sat beside her, a bag in his hand. He grabbed into it, moved his hand to his mouth and started munching.

"What's that?" the Masterbender asked him noticing it.

"Some candy," her friend munched. "Did you never eat this before?"

Jaycee shrugged.

"We didn't really have the resources for things like this," she explained.

"Man, you really missed something," Aang told her. "Here, try it." He handed her a handful of sweets. The girl looked at them mistrusting, then she slowly took a bite.

"Mmmmh… this is really…good…" she said while stuffing her mouth with the candies. Aang handed her the whole bag, considering Jaycee had never had something like them before.

About 10 minutes later Zuko, Sokka, Katara, Suki and Toph came back from their house tour.

"And no one has been here since your mother vanished?" Sokka just asked.

"No," the Firebender replied. "She was the only one who ever really wanted to come here; I don't think my father cares about who is here."

"I still can't believe we're hiding from the Firelord in his own house," Suki noticed.

"Doeshn't make shenshe when ya hear it firsht, but when ya shink 'bout it it'sh pwetty loshishal, ishn't it"? Jaycee added, still munching the now half-empty bag of candy in her lap. **_((Translation: Doesn't make sense when you hear it first, but when you think about it it's pretty logical, isn't it?))_**

"Yeah, probably," Katara agreed. Sokka noticed the bag.

"What are you eating the whole time?" he wanted to know.

Jaycee didn't even stop eating. "Candy."

"Better don't eat too much," the Avatar advised her. "That's not very good…"

"It TASTES good!" the Masterbender complained.

Zuko rolled his eyes about his friends.

_"_Whatever, we need to train," he changed the subject. "Aang, your firebending still needs practice."

"Sparky's right, your earthbending could also be better," Toph added.

"Waterbending, too," Katara agreed. "Come on." She grabbed Aang's arm and pulled him with her.

He followed her annoyed.

"Aww, man, do I have to? I just finished training with Jaycee!"

"Pfft,  
training," the Masterbender chuckled quietly.

"No excuse twinkle-toes, come on, now," the blind girl told him, making the earth under the boys feet shift so that he moved forward. Katara turned back to her Non-bending allies.

"Sokka, Suki, you can stay here with Jaycee and watch us," she suggested.

Suki looked at Zuko and Toph who were now arguing about who of them would teach Aang first, Aang himself was stretching his muscles.

"Nah, I'll better go and train some fighting myself," she refused

"Alright," the Waterbender agreed, then she joined her arguing allies, yelling, "Quit it, you two! We start with waterbending, then earthbending, and then firebending, like in the Avatar cycle. Aang, try to attack me."

"The Avatar cycle is unfair," Toph complained, but then she followed Zuko a few steps apart from her friends to clear the area and watch Aang taking some water from a nearby fountain and trying to throw icicles at his friend who stepped aside and threw them back.

Sokka sat down beside his ally who offered him a handful of candy which he refused and watched his girlfriend warming up then proceeding to make some simple but effective moves with her fans.

_0~o~0~o~0_

"I think that's enough for today," Katara announced about half an hour later. "Break, everyone!"

"Finally," the Avatar sighed as he plopped down beside Sokka who sat alone, Appa resting beside him, an empty bag on his lap.

"Yes, finally," Toph agreed. "It's my turn now, and _I _won't go easy on you like sweetness."

"You call that _easy_? Aang exclaimed indignantly. The blind girl just smirked and sat beside him stretching her arms. The young boy glared at her, then he noticed his empty bag on his friend's lap.

"Hey, where's my candy?" he wanted to know.

Katara suck her breath. "Sokka, you…"

"That wasn't me," he replied, holding up the bag.

"Then why are you holding it?" his sister asked, pointing at it. Sokka put the bag back at his lap and looked thoughtful.

"Uhhh…" he started, then suddenly Jaycee came running towards them and stopped in front of them, starting to speak very quickly.

"Oh, no, wait, that really wasn't him, that was me, I'm sorry, did you want to eat it, I'll go to town and get you more, I mean, I don't have money, but, you know, I'm good at getting stuff for free, I mean, it's not allowed, I know, but, who cares, I mean, it's not like the Fire Nation is always following rules, right, and when I'm already there I could also get more for myself, I mean, it tastes really, really good, and you were right, I have no idea how I survived without candy until now, you know, thanks for giving me, I didn't want to eat it all, but I just couldn't stop, you know, it's too good, oh, am I talking too fast, sorry, just don't blame Sokka, he didn't eat any of it, I mean, I offered him some, but he refused, and actually I'm glad, because now I could eat it, I mean, I know I shouldn't have, but still, you know, I feel much better already, I feel so good as if I could fly now, you know, without a glider, just by running fast enough, you know, like, weeeeeeeeeee!" she yelled laughing, starting to run circles as fast as she could around the whole court, using her airbending to become even faster. Her friends stared at her confused, not really sure about what had just happened. Suki came walking beside them, her eyes also on the running Airbender.

"What's with her?" she wanted to know. Jaycee waved her arms into the air, still running circles, and screamed, "I LOVE CANDYYY!"

Her allies kept staring at her, not knowing what to say about the situation.

"Yes, she obviously does," Sokka agreed withhis friend.

"At least she's feeling better," Aang stated, trying to look encouraging.

"I'm not sure if you can call this better," Katara disagreed, watching her ally.

"Yeah, what was in that stuff?" Toph wondered. "She's worse than Sokka on cactus juice."

"Probably too much sugar for someone who never ate it before," the Avatar suggested.

Suddenly Jaycee stopped in front of them again, a dead serious look at her face.

"Stop staring at me," she pleaded, glancing shyly at her friends.

**A/N**

**Okay, my apologies for the weird ending xD. My best friend and I were talking about this story when one of us noticed that Jaycee had probably never even seen anything with sugar before, so I wrote this just for fun since this would probably happen. When I saw how depressing this chapter is I decided to add the scene to make it funnier ^-^ Please don't take it too seriously.**

**I hope I didn't make little Azula too cruel. We haven't seen much of her in the show, but I think this could be something she would say/do. I mean, have you read the search? And I'm not sure if Ozai was already Firelord when Zuko was 10. Actually, not long ago I've read somewhere that he became Firelord when Zuko was 11, but let's just ignore that. Ursa was on vacation and couldn't stop her husband.**

**By the way, in case anybody noticed, the Amita with the four-year-old son is the same Amita who was pregnant in the last chapter. Life went on 3 (but then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked).**

**Also, yes, Zuko fell out of his tent. Happens to everyone. This is actually pretty much me when I go camping. I wanted to make him a bit awkward so Jaycee would have doubts about him being the enemy. And because he's just so cute when he's awkward ^-^**

**On Appa's saddle, Jaycee just needed comfort, she didn't care who hugged her. It could've been Firelord Ozai himself.**

**Btw I recently got very bored so I went on one of those pages where you can find out the meanings of names, and I found out that Jaycee is Greek and means healer! I SWEAR that's a coincidence! When I picked the name I thought I had made it up myself until I found out it already exists (yeah, looking back I feel pretty stupid for not knowing that). I kept it because I liked it and I made Jaycee the healer's daughter because she had to have knowledge about edible and healing plants. I didn't know of the meaning, but… OMG xDDD**

**I just wanted to explain these things. My A/N's are always too long… :/**

**The next chapter will probably lack of action. I didn't write it yet and I have no idea what's going to happen; I have writer's block right now :/ It'll probably just be the Gaang hanging around on Ember Island. But there has to be a filler before Sozin's comet starts because I don't want to make things seem too rushed. I'm not looking forward to rewrite that; especially because Jaycee won't have that much dialogue in it. She's only really important in one scene (You can probably guess in which one; Zuko/OC cliché). But I'll have to rewrite the whole thing (at least the parts with Jaycee in them) to make this story sound logical.**

**Whatever, this A/N is starting to be longer than the entire chapter again…**

**Thanks for reading and PLEASE review! (makes Puppy dog face) Thanks :D**


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